Chapter 74: Strongest Student Subdued.

“They’re still human.” But there was a reason one didn’t bring a knife to a gun fight, as he pointed his revolver at the surprised Kamakiri and pulled the trigger.

The bark of a gunshot was heard, echoing through a forest already in chaos from gas, smoke, and flames. "I remember. I saw you on TV during the Sports Fest. Didn't make much of an impact then, did you?" the villain joked as he held his smoking gun, his target very much not dead.

“Bastard, you brought a damn gun?" Kamakiri growled as he barely recalled moving. All he could see was that one moment, he saw the gun, the next, he pulled his arms back to protect his chest and head, sprouting out blades from his arms in as many directions as he could, the bullet tore through 2 before it ricocheted off God knows where.

Under normal circumstances, just one of his blades could have handled that. Still, he was tired from a day's training and had a sinking feeling that they waited for nighttime for that very reason.

"What's wrong with bringing the right tools for a job? But I won't lie, I did not think you would be so quick, just what I would expect from a top school, even if they recruited people like you." The villain mocked, Kamakiri’s eyes narrowing at that familiar and unwelcome comment.

“Buddy, I’ve taken more shit from people who are a lot scarier than you, what? You some edgy middle schooler?” Kamakiri asked, only to rush him again, blades forming along his forearms to slice up that little gun, but the villain, not missing a beat, fired once more, forcing Kamakiri to block both shots, the second forcing him to jump back.

"Like I'm dumb enough to let you get close, you're a walking knife, and we all know what they say about bringing knives to gun fights," The villain laughed before he looked to the side, right as his gas parted from Kendo, trying to attack him. "Even if you try to bring back-up." He didn't flinch as he turned and tried to shoot her.

“Kendo!” Kamakiri rushed forward, protecting her, but saw another of his blades crack and chip from the shot. As he got back to his feet, his blades forming around his arms to give him some protection, the villain continued taunting them.

"So simple-minded, just the sort of thing you could expect from people like you, it almost makes you not worth the bullets," Kamakiri growled under his breath, as this guy was getting on his nerves with the comments. He hadn't heard any since coming to U.A., but he should have remembered that was an outlier, and pricks like this were a depressing norm.

“Kendo, let me handle the gun.” He said, right as he was shot in the shoulder, his blade sending the bullet off course by sheer luck.

“Oh, how gentlemen-like, but you can’t save her,” the villain fired another shot, Kamakiri again defending against it, though he was getting nowhere. You can barely save yourself."

The villain pulled back into the gas, making it hard to see him, allowing the shooter to quickly reload his gun in relative peace. Once that was done, he began toying with the two who stepped up to challenge him.

"I see how your little quirks are. You create blades from any part of your body, but it looks like you struggle with your legs. Otherwise, you would have bladed up by now, but you can't keep them out, and when they're gone," Kamakiri was paying close attention to the voice, using it to track where the fucker could be. It was for that reason that he heard a sharp, metallic click; he didn't hesitate.

As the villain pulled the trigger, Kamakiri was already moving, his arm swung to the side, creating as large a blade as he could, not a moment too soon, as he was ready, but his aim was off. The bullet didn't hit the blade but instead struck Kamakiri in his side, flooding the area with a burst of pain as he dropped to a knee, holding his bleeding wound.

The villain laughed at that, now firing with increased frequency on the wounded hero student, Kamakiri’s defense lagging as he mainly used one arm, which resulted in his getting a couple of grazes. Another bullet tore through his shoulder, Kamakiri cursing as he was forced to rely on his uninjured side more, leaving his first wound to bleed unchecked.

"You're wide open. Oh man, does that suck for you. Can't get close or run away, maybe U.A. lowered their standards when they let you in."

Kamakiri was in serious pain but could handle it, particularly because he wasn't fighting for himself. But he knew he was in a bad spot, a really bad spot. This guy wasn't giving them much leeway, and he needed a way to close the gap before he was shot again and possibly ended up face-first in the dirt. "You sure love the talk. If I wanted someone to annoy me with pointless shit talking, I'd ask."

The villains' continued laughter only made him want to do more than subdue them. “Trying to rile me up, make me focus on you, real simple but effective. My eyes remain on you, but I don’t need my eyes to see the other one.” Without turning, he aimed his gun at his rear, where Kendo was just coming into view.

“Crap!” She cursed as he saw the gun and reactively enlarged one hand, a bullet striking into her supersized palm, drawing blood as she was forced to take a couple of steps back while getting shot another 2 times.

“Kendo!” Kamakiri yelled as he charged at the bastard, but his wounds slowed him down. When the villain turned his gun back towards him, he was forced to block, all while the villain shifted back into the gas, hidden from view.

But they could hear him loud and clear. "Haven't you figured it out? I'm making the gas. That's someone an idiot could tell if you're here, but also feel how it's moving. Its fluctuations are showing me a constantly updating 3-D map of the area. In layman’s speak, I can see everything and everyone around me. I could wear a damn blindfold, and you still couldn't get the jump on me!"

Kamakiri didn't know what ticked this guy off. Still, neither he nor Kendo had time or the interest to figure that out as the fucker started to fire on them from several angles, Kamakiri blocking the best he could. At the same time, Kendo did the same with her hands, the two gritting their teeth as shot after shot struck them, drawing blood and leaving them off-balance and unable to strike back.

The villain took a breath, having lost his cool there momentarily. However, he was still the one with the upper hand, so he could pull back and speak more casually as he reloaded his pistol, letting the spent brass fall out in place of fresh bullets.

"Come on, I would have thought U.A. students would have noticed, and yet here you are, shattering the image I had of your school. You should be ashamed."

“He sure loves to talk,” Kendo muttered, as they had heard some villains liked to hear themselves talk, but this kid was taking it to an extreme. What, was he going to start talking about why he was here?

"I hate assholes that waste time talking when we could be handling this stupid brat," Kamakiri replied to her statement, speaking loud enough that he knew their mysterious shooter would hear it.

"Says the one who keeps getting shot, what? You like it?" The villain mocked them, though Kamakiri was sure he was mainly insulting him.

“A lot of shot talking for someone who barely put a scratch on me,” He boasted, standing straight, presenting his wounded body to their attacker, but without an ounce of fear. He’s faced villains before; he fought for his life at the USJ. This was the same, and just like them, he had people he needed to protect, as Kendo's hands couldn't be in a good way after all those shots she blocked with them.

The villain sighed, as if speaking with a particularly slow child. "And here you are, still acting like you're the Terminator? That's so damn pathetic." He sneered, but then a thought seemed to come to him. "Or is it because you want to be a hero, have people fawn over you, forget what you are, and you know you'll never be anything but?"

Kamakiri didn't react to the bait; he wouldn't give this brat the satisfaction, even when he saw the glint of steel and raised his injured arm.

“All that delusional thinking just because of where you went to school!” The villain yelled, Kamakiri would have laughed at how this brat seemed jealous that Kamakiri, the unworthy other, had gotten into U.A. while he didn't.

He would have, if his arm had raised fast enough that his blade could have blocked the shot.  Instead, he got tagged on the upper arm, tearing through his flesh, striking bone before coming to an ugly, messy stop in his arm, leaving his right arm close to useless now, as he could barely lift it. When he tried, it showed how damage it took with the spikes of pain shooting through it.

Kendo wasn’t idle either, as she tried to attack the villain yet again, unwilling to just let Kamakiri take all the punishment, only to need to protect her face when the villain shot at her.

“I already told you, I can see where you are, you can’t hide from me!” He gloated, only for Kendo to yell as she continued the charge, putting pressure on the villain for a change.

“Who said we’re hiding? You want to kill us, then grow a backbone and do it!” She declared, the villain grunting as she nearly hit him, but his surprise faded as he stepped back into the gas to mask himself.

“Kendo, stay back, this is dange-!”

“You finish that and I’ll knock your ass out,” Kendo cut him off, not letting Kamakiri speak, not when he looked so bad already, not when she could still fight. “I ain’t some damsel in distress, I'm trying to be a hero, same as you, and I'm your class rep. I won't shame myself by sitting and letting you get shot up."

"Oh, class rep? I didn't know U.A. did that. It must have been easy to win, with a pretty girl asking all nice things and everyone voting for you." Despite the situation, Kendo rolled her eyes as this kid was tiring.

“Jeez, and I thought Monoma could be annoying.” She muttered as she swung her aim, the hand still enlarged, but it had an unexpected effect as she saw how the movement pushed the gas around. ‘Hold on…’ He said he was using the gas to see them and that he was controlling it, but she recalled those pockets and concentration issues further back. His control could move it, but it was still a gas.

The realization hit her at the same time as she was shot, her hand taking the shot meant for her chest. “And that’s another hit, those big hands of yours sure aren’t much help right now, are they? All you’re doing is giving me a bigger target. You two really lucked out against me. I was worried I'd need to deal with someone important like Todoroki or Midoriya," The villain taunted, ignorant of how Kendo had figured out the perfect means to handle it.

Kamakiri came at the guy from behind, but the villain turned on his heel and fired on him, this time, Kamakiri opting to dodge rather than risk his slowed reaction time drawing more blood from him. “Don’t think I’ve forgotten about you, bug face.”

He can talk all he wants, but Kendo wasn't going to sit idle, as she started swinging, not at him, but around herself. An act which would have done next to nothing if she wasn't using her quirk, but when she was, it meant she was creating massive blasts of wind, sending the gas around her into an uncontrolled flurry. "You're such a cocky brat, but you're right about one thing: we're training to be heroes, which means, simple quirks or not, all that matters is how I use it!"

“What the-But your hands are shot up? How the heck can you still use them?” The villain asked, as he could see the bullet holes on her hands, she should be moaning in the dirt!

"You think that'll be enough? Just training to be a hero is blood, sweat, and tears. We push ourselves to our limits and beyond them every day, even for a little improvement, while people like you just sneer and mock because you didn't get what you wanted when you wanted it, you're really just some spoiled brat." Kendo declared, looking dead at his gas mask's red-tinged eyes.

“You bitch…”  The villain cursed as the intense winds she was kicking up were messing with his quirk; he couldn't control his gas when like this, and it was becoming incredibly thin. “So you can thin my gas? So what? You can’t defend yourself like that, you’re wide open!” He yelled, ready to put a bullet through her head and be done with it.

“She would be, if she didn’t have me,” Kamakiri spoke up, but not from behind him, but he was charging straight for him from the front?!

“What-but why didn’t you sneak up on-!” The villain fired, caught completely by surprise, but his aim was off, his calm broken.

Still, the bullet flew towards Kamakiri, nearly hitting him in the face as he shifted his head as far to the side as he could, leaving only one of his ever-present hooked cheek blades in the way. The shot snapped it in two, but it didn't slow him down.

“Because heroes confront problems head-on, and slice through them!” Kamakiri yelled as he sliced at the kid's hand, missing his flesh but instead cutting the gun in two. Then, using the momentum, he swung his body around, using his wounded and bad arm to slice at the kid's gas mask, severing both tubes and the air filter unit, leaving the brat to choke on the gas. "Now shut the hell up!"

The kid tried to say something, or maybe fight back. Still, in seconds, the extreme concentration of his own quirk did what it had done to so many of their classmates. Kendo and Kamikiri watched as he fell on his ass, unconscious.

Moments later, like a switch had been flipped, the gas started to clear, enough that Kendo felt relaxed enough to remove her mask and breathe fresh night air. "The poison, it's disappearing…Looks like his quirk is similar to Honenuki's."

Kamakiri did the same, moving more slowly because of how messed up his right arm was. "No kidding, smart-ass was talking all that shit about having a great quirk, and yet he needed to wear a mask just to keep from knocking himself out." His greedy breath of air only sent a spike of pain through his left side, a reminder he hadn't come out of that untouched. With the fight over and visible danger handled, his adrenaline faded, leaving him feeling too weak to stand as he fell to a knee.

“Shit…” He pressed into his side, hissing as he saw just how red the patch of clothing was.

“Kamakiri,” Kendo was immediately by his side, worried for his health as he tried to assure her.

“I’m fine….I’m fine, not about to bleed out just yet,” Kamakiri told her, as it hurt like a bitch, but he wasn't seeing double yet, nor did his mind feel slow, so he figured he was good. “What about you? You-“

Kendo figured he would ask that, but she showed him her hands, and to his surprise, what should be blood-stained bullet holes were closer to needle pricks; some aren't even bleeding anymore. Seeing his confusion, she explained it. "Funny thing about my quirk, any wounds I gain while using it kinda shrink as well. And when my hands were that big, his bullets didn't do much of anything; he was just too busy gloating to notice."

Kamakiri laughed, as he should have figured something like that would be the case. Otherwise, if she took a big hit while her hands were large, the wounds wouldn’t shrink with it. "Sweet, that means you can do the heavy lifting, carrying this moron back to camp." He gestured to the villain, who remained passed out.

"And you as well. I can get back into things, but you need to get patched up," Kendo told him, only for her eyes to narrow when she saw him moving to argue. “Argue with me and I’ll knock you out.”

"Jeez, you're more violent tonight," Kamakiri grumbled. She was tough on them, but she typically reserved this stuff for Monoma when he got really annoying.

“It’s a pretty violent night.” Kendo shot back, looking serious but unable to hold it, as both of them started laughing. Despite the attack still going, despite their situation and his injuries, they laughed at the joke, as everyone knows, they needed it.

“True, all right, fine, you win this time.” Letting her help him up, Kendo reached for the villain, making sure he dropped the gun. She picked him up, and they started making their way back to camp.

Line Break

“Come on, you heard what she said, didn’t you?” Kirishima urged. “I can’t just sit here and do nothing!”

They hadn't calmed since Mandalay's broadcast had gone out. Things were made all the worse when Iida and the rest arrived, having run the entire way from where their classmates had been, with confirmation that the Pussy Cats were fighting 2 villains, but also how they seemed to be a raging forest fire.

“Our classmates are fighting out there, Vlad-sensei, please let us go out and help, we managed the USJ just fine!” Tetsutetsu was also up in arms, and the boy looked like he would just rush out of the room any moment now.

Vlad knew this, so he placed himself between the students and the door. With his arms crossed and eyes closed in thought, he remained a wall. "This is nothing like the USJ, Tetsutetsu. You were attacked, and all were in danger. However, you 9 are safe here; you don't have permission to fight."

"But sir, wouldn't having as many fighters in play make more sense?" Iida tried to sway him, suggesting that perhaps they didn't need to fight, but could instead lend aid and help others escape.

"You can't seriously want to face them," Mineta asked him, but Kirishima and Tetsutetsu only heard Iida’s support. Having something they both knew to be a stickler for rules on their side galvanised them to continue to push for action.

"See, Iida gets it; we can get into the action and overwhelm these villains," Kirishima told him, only for Vlad to open his eyes and look at them all. They didn't see their gruff, but lovable, supportive teacher. They saw a pro who was as no-nonsense as they got.

“You’re all first years, with just a semester’s worth of training, or did you forget?” he challenged them, his gaze making some look away as for all their pride, they knew their limits, or recalled what real action was like, witnessing it at Hosu, or for Monoma, Iida, Kaminari and Mineta, witnessing it on I-island. “Sending you to fight against villains whose numbers and abilities we don’t know would be idiotic and irresponsible of your teachers.”

With the discussion seemingly over, the students remained where they were, no one feeling like they could sit. Ashido looked like she was going to try to make Kirishima feel better or just help him see Vlad's side of things when they heard the door to the building open.

“Was that the door?” Ojiro asked.

"I guess, Aizawa-sensei came back early," Sero called out, as if to leave it to their homeless-looking teacher to get out, get something done, and get back in what felt like just a couple of minutes.

"I'll speak with him; maybe he can be convin—" Tetsutetsu marched for the door, only for Vlad to stop him.

“Wait.” Like Sero, he also thought it incredible if Eraser could make it back in time, but he knew it wasn't likely. The approaching footsteps also didn't match up. In a situation like this, Eraser or any of the Pussy Cats would be running or at least jogging. This person was walking.

As the shadow approached the door, he immediately recognised that it didn't match them. He grabbed Tetsutetsu and Kirishima, diving to the side. “Move!” A moment later, the door was destroyed by a burst of insanely hot blue flames, burning everything that happened to be in their way.

Walking through the lingering smoke, a familiar villain made themselves known, Mineta being the first to recognise them and point it out in disbelief and fear. “No way, that’s the lady who got creamed earlier!”

The pyromancer turned her blue eye his way, freezing Mineta as she moved to let loose another blast, only for Vlad to slam into her. “Too slow!” Vlad forced them villainess hard into the wall by the throat, his quirk activating, encasing them in a thick sheet of blood that held them to it while also drowning their flames in blood-forged crystals.

“Blood control, it’s so strong…” Krisihima uttered, as he had never seen it in action, but Vlad kept his attention on the current threat.

"You have a lot of balls to dare walk into my class without so much as a plan. You underestimate us, " he declared, but the villain didn't look surprised or angry, just cocky, and not in the way he would hope. They seemed confident in whatever they were doing, and that his capturing her didn't mean a thing.

“Did we? Nah, I would say we were right on the money." Dabi mused, taking some joy in how, beyond Vlad's gruff anger, he was confused and worried for his students he didn't immediately have with him. “Don’t matter what happens to me, this fight is ours, you just don’t know it yet.” He was right to be; he just had no clue how right he was.

"The two pillars of hero society are chained together: U.A., the gold standard of hero schools, and All Might, the Symbol of Peace. But things haven't been going your way for a while now, have they?" Dabi's smile grew as she saw the students uncertainly. They all knew it, had to have felt it, and probably looked forward to the camp as a means to forget.

“People are so shaken they don't know what to think; they're losing faith in you. Imagine how they'll react when they learn U.A. got attacked again, and how you couldn't protect your students and let one of them get kidnapped?" She asked, which sparked a new kind of fear in the students.

“Kidnapped? They got someone?” Bondo asked, worried sick about the rest.

"You'll tell us who and tell us right now!" Tetsutetsu barked. He and Kirishima raised their hands, their quirks active, but the villain hardly seemed scared.

"Don't be naïve; making statements like that without a big enough stick to back them up sounds pathetic. It only took a handful of us to separate you students from the pros; we’re just about done here.” As they spoke, their bodies, at least the parts of them not covered up, started to light up.

“Why you-!” As Vlad was moving to knock the woman out, Eraser came in from the door, landing a powerful kick to her head, no doubt knocking her out.

“It’s no use, Vlad. She won’t talk.” Eraser told him as he wrapped her up, as she had been freed by Vlad, but Eraser kept on stomping on her, each one harder than the last. "She's just trying to provoke you; she won't talk."

“Sir, I think that’s enough,” Kaminari was happy to see their teacher, they all were but they didn’t think it was right for him to basically beat on someone already down, only for Ashido to gasp as they looked, really looked and saw the villain’s body lose form, becoming featureless brown sludge that went splat when Eraser stomped on it one last time.

“Just as I thought, another fake. No doubt the product of one of their quirks.” Eraser grumbled, as this didn’t bode well for them.

“She wasn’t real?” Kodai asked, showing some surprise at the idea that a quirk could make a person, and so, like, nothing like Pixie-Bo dirt creations.

"We have more important things right now, Vlad. I need the med kit now." Eraser directed Vlad to follow him out of the class. Vlad frowned but quickly grabbed the extensive med kit they kept around for emergencies.

“Right, whose it for?” Vlad asked as they left, Eraser not mincing his words.

“Tsunotori.”

“Pony?!” Tetsutetsu was rushing out before anyone could stop him. When the rest followed suit, they saw him as still as steel, his gaze on Pony. They saw just how badly she had been injured, the blood, the clearly broken arm and leg, even her own horn sticking out of her side, having been used to stab her.

“Wh…what happened to here?” Monoma asked. Vlad was already working on Tsunotori, the man running through her condition, before he opened the medicine kit and pulled out the needed supplies.

"As best I could tell, she was fighting one of the villains to protect Kota over there. I wasn't able to get to the others to contact Mandalay as I rushed back here." Eraser replied, frowning. He was as much a fan of this as his students, but he couldn’t tend to her in the field, his tools being limited.

Kodai was the first to realize that the bandages that Vlad was removing to get a better view of things were parts of Eraser's capture scarf. Still, she didn't mention it, she didn't…she didn't want to admit that her classmate was in such horrible condition even as she looked at it. “A villain…did that?” She asked, as this was nothing like the USJ

Except…it was. It had been this brutal for one of them, but unlike Midoriya, Tsunotori wasn't a natural regenerator.

“Is she going to be all right?” Koda asked, but their teachers didn't offer them any response. Vlad focused on tending to Pony's wounds; the girl was still out like a light.

He didn’t look up from his task as he said the next thing. “You get back out there, Eraser. If we have villains capable of this running around, you’ll be more effective than I will. I’ll handle treating her and trying to call emergency services.”

Eraser nodded, but didn't immediately leave, not when he had something on his mind that could be a major risk for them. “One thing, I thought that they were sending their strongest fighters here to keep our attention, seeing how the two copies did the same thing, but it begs the question,”

“Who did Pony fight?” Vlad finished the thought. As her condition, this wasn't some mere villain; she had to have been a monster in every sense of the word, someone who wanted her to suffer before they eventually killed her.

“It was Muscular…he…he’s the one who, papa and momma…” Kota whispered, his eyes haunted as he couldn’t look away, he couldn’t stop seeing it, stop hearing Muscular beating the snot out of Pony, hearing Pony tell him it’ll be all right, that she’ll protect him-

“Muscular’s on the loose?” Eraser asked, stopping the child's spiral before it could go somewhere he might not be able to return.

Lucky for them, Kota vigorously shook his head. “She beat him, he was asking about Midoriya…but…she didn't tell him, and…he beat her up really bad, I…I couldn’t do anything.” He started to cry, only for Eraser to place a comforting hand on his head.

None of them were happy about this, about seeing Pony laid out on the floor, fighting for her life as Vlad worked to patch up the worst of her condition. They hated that she might not be the only one, but Eraser would be damned if he let Kota think he was, for any reason, at fault for this.

So he channelled as much of his old friend as he could and spoke honestly to Kota: “You did plenty just by making it here to tell us that. Your safety and that information are worth far more than you realize. So please, honour Tsunotori’s efforts by staying here and staying safe. She tends to get mad when people ignore her work, as my students could tell you."

As he handed Kota to Ashido and Monoma, the two already holding Kota close, Vlad stated something else. “Eraser, before you arrived, the villain said something about kidnapping, if Muscular was asking about Midoriya,”

"Then he's likely the target; maybe they're overconfident, but evidence would say otherwise. He would have been in the forest with the rest of class B." Eraser noted, but then his prior thought came back. "But if they're using copies to attack here, it's to keep us from getting into the field, so they can't have that, maybe people, nowhere near as much as the USJ."

“Then that’s all the more reason to let us out there!” Kirishima revived the debate.

"If there aren't that many of them, why not let us fight, too?" Tetsutetsu was with him, filled with fury at the condition of his classmate, and bone-chilling fear for what the rest could be like if he didn't get out there and help.

“You said it yourselves, Midoriya could be in danger, we need to go out and look for him!” Iida threw in his voice, as this attack was far too much like Hosu, and if the League, the same people who worked with Stain, were involved, then-

Eraser slammed the door on that conversation. “Did you not see what happened to your classmate? Muscular might be defeated, but the villains could have others of similar strength. We won’t allow you to put ourselves into such harm's way. Midoriya may be a target, but we don’t know if he’s the only one. Tsunotori’s condition proves that those aren't on whatever list won't have villains holding back."

They all bit their tongues, the reminder of Pony’s condition hitting them hard as Vlad sighed.

"It's frustrating, believe me. I know, but we just don't know enough, and because of them, it just isn't right to send you into harm's way. They're here to hurt as many students as they can, so we counter that by ensuring as many of you are safe." He told them as Eraser turned to leave, having said all he needed and learned what he could.

"I'll head out, Vlad. If I can get to Mandalay, she can pass on the message to everyone about the possible kidnapping attempt." With that, Eraser made his way for the exit, running as fast as he could out of the building and into the forest.

Her words then and now make it clear. I wish I could get this out earlier, but I trust you already use your quirks. The law be damned, just fight to keep yourselves and your classmates alive, students. U.A. will stand by you no matter what happens.’ Aizawa thought, pushing his body to race even faster before something else could happen.

Sadly, he was already too late.

Line break

“You’re one of the villains, aren’t you?” Midoriya asked, flowing into Yellowstone mode. Glancing to the side, he saw that Koharu was nowhere to be found. She had to be too far away right now.

"Correct, and you're one of the students. In fact, it's my lucky day. You, my dear pyromaniac, are on the list." The man stood straight, cracking his neck as he did so, exposing the fact that even his neck wasn't typical, first bird and now what looked like an insectoid? What was his quirk then?

“List?” Midoriya repeated, but only got into a combative stance. Heat pooling in his core. “Doesn’t matter, we won’t let you attack our camp and get away with it. I’m going to take you down.”

His unnamed opponent chuckled. "You're welcome to try; just make this interesting before I pummel you." He rushed towards Midoriya, pulling a fist back to try to punch him.

Those were the villain's words, but for the last few minutes, Midoriya wondered how they thought they could live up to them.

Yes, he could fight and did pretty darn well, but his hits didn't do too much damage. Midoriya could keep up in Yellowstone; he could even match this guy. After their first couple of exchanges, Midoriya went on the offensive, using his fire to light up the area, forcing the villain back and controlling the flow of things, just as he had been taught in class and by Burnin and Endeavour.

He didn't give the villain a moment to think; he kept pushing him again and again. And he was making headway, as while the man wasn't down or taking a heavy bit, he was burning. He kept using his hands to block his attacks, which wasn't burning him, but it seemed to be absorbed into his crystal, like finger tips. They'd glow, and then it would fade.

Midoriya had heard of a similar quirk that Endeavour handled at Hosu, an absorption and release, but that had a limit, and the Nomu that had it still suffered burns like you would expect from that level of heat.

He guessed his opponent's quirk allowed him to absorb flames, which would explain why he was so confident, but Midoriya didn't just fight with flame, so for the life of him, he couldn't help but wonder what this guy was planning. Was he going to try to blast him with his own fire? Good luck. He'd burn each time he used it; it was nothing new.

The villain ducked under another fireball, his eyes watching it, gazing into its fiery depths, but with a blink, it continued and smashed into a burnt-out tree. Midoriya was already moving, having jumped towards them, a fist cocked back to smash them into the dirt, but they again evaded. If nothing else, this guy was incredibly creative and flexible in how they moved; it was like fighting someone made of water.

But it had limits, and now he was right where Midoriya wanted him to be.

As he stood, the villain noticed that Midoriya had shifted their positions. “Hold on, if the forest behind me is already nothing but used charcoal…” He smiled as he saw Midoriya’s face puff up. “Cheeky bastard,”

“Serpent’s Fireball!” Midoriya sent the biggest attack yet at this man, even if he could negate it, that would take time, he could-

Whatever he wanted to do, whatever he planned to use as a counter or follow-up fell flat on its face when he watched his fireball vanish.

"What?" Midoriya stomped, wide-eyed, looking at his opponent, trying to figure out what he had just done. That was nothing like his previous absorption. Those were slower and seemed to have limits, but this was something else. Just what did he do?

"Well, you did make this interesting, kid. I can't lie about that. This could have only ended one way," the man sighed, though he remained still.

"Did you…Are you immune to flames?" Midoriya asked, wondering how he was supposed to handle this guy now. No doubt, he would need to rely on just hand-to-hand.

"Immune, nah, that ain’t it," The villain shook his head, his body seemingly vibrating, as he took a breath, it looked like it pained him. "All I did was take the energy of the flames, store it, and-" He aimed his gauntlets to the ground. Without warning, their speakers roared to life, unleashing an incredibly loud, ear-drum-pounding sound akin to an explosion. Still, instead of heat and flames escaping the villain, he was surrounded by large, thick stumps of ice.

"And convert it to ice and sound, that is my quirk." The villain explained, showing off his hands, more specifically, his finger nails, which Midoriya realized had to be how he was taking in all that anergy. "And for someone like you, who's practically a living fire-" He seemed to vanish for a moment, Midoriya’s eyes widening before he finally saw the man again, as he had closed the distance, his hand already pulled back, not in a fist but his fingers all straight, ready to run him through.

Midoriya was not like others. When they saw such, they would have moved immediately, flinched, or countered. They would need to because this incoming attack would hurt and do serious damage if it landed.

But for a regenerator, such thoughts didn't register with him. He would be fine—he had always been fine. Even after being torn in half, he returned from that after some rest and nutrition. Instinct could find itself at odds with his rational, conscious mind, as in those critical moments, he had a horrifying realization.

If this guy's power could take the energy of flames and convert it to ice wherever his hands were facing, what would happen if those hands were plunged into his core?

He moved to dodge, but he moved too late.

Midoriya felt the villain stab him, his crystal-tipped fingers piercing his chest, through his lungs, and into his lung, just barely missing his heart. At the point of puncture, steam and heat burst like hair escaping a balloon, all absorbed into the villain's fingers.

Midoriya only had a moment to look the man in the eye as he uttered. "It made me the worst opponent you could ever face."

The forest was rocked by another explosion, a sound close to a boom of thunder following a lightning strike flying in all directions. It was so loud that many paused for a moment to look around, confused as to why they would hear something out of season, and with a clear sky no less.

That blast of thunder created a massive iceberg in the middle of the forest, which flattened trees and rock like nothing, spreading far and high into the sky, leading those close enough to see it to believe it was Todoroki's work. At the same time, Todoroki immediately realised it was trouble, who handed Tsuburaba to Shoji and took Tokage off Bakugo’s hands as the two rushed off in the direction of it.

From Shoji, they knew Yanagi had come from that direction, and Midoriya had gone deeper in that direction to handle the flames. He sure as hell didn't use ice.

And at the source of it?

“Damn, kid. You were holding that much firepower in you? No wonder Shigaraki’s got his eye on you.” The villain coughed as he was breathing in a lot of ice-cold air. Pulling his hand back, he looked at his work.

The iceberg seemed to sprout out of Midoriya's back like a butterfly's wings, while a massive hole lay where he had been first pierced, ice jutting out of it and out the back. The kid's face was frozen in that look of shock and a deep, primal fear that could only come from facing something that was the antithesis of what you were.

And for a boy embraced by flames, that was the realization he was about to be put on ice. Lucky for him, he was still alive; the villain had been careful to ensure as much. Shigaraki didn't want a frozen corpse after all, but with that done.

Reaching for his comms, he announced the following for the rest of the League members present: "Vanguard Action Squad, I've got the target. The strongest student has been secured. If you can, make your way to the pick-up point. We're done here."

Line Break

And we're back, this time with a full chapter! Last week was a bit of a busy time for me. With that previous chapter, I set up another two fights to replace the ones that have been resolved, and I managed to handle both of them. It's also the end of the summer camp attack, as I couldn't find a reason to rehash everything that happened, such as Toga meeting Uraraka and Asui.

Line Break

With that, we bring the Summer camp attack to a close. The next chapter will cover its aftermath and how the students will go from there, as a lot has been moved and changed. Class B got the bigger focus instead of making it so that class A still were the stars, but Izuku was wearing a B instead of an A.