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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---
Discord: https://discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y
pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (30+ chapters ahead)
CHAPTER START---
Mirko rockets foward, faster than Horizon can ever hope to physically react to.
Luckily his ROOM overcomes that, allowing him to analyze and predict the simplistic movement of her fighting syle.
INCISION+BOOSTER SHOT!
He swings his sword, this time using both hands.
His sword and the metal tips of her Hero Costume boots clash. A moment before impact she adjusted her feet to kick the side of his sword instead of the blade.
All while in mid-air she knocks his sword to the side with one leg, and launches and vicious kick with the other.
As it's about to slam into his visor.
SHAMBLES!
He swaps places with her.
And she simple continues the kick until she's spun around to kick where she was a moment ago, once again missing him by a hairs breath as he swaps places with a nearby rock.
The air pressure from her kick rips up the ground in front of her for a few meters as she lands on her feet.
"Those cheap tricks won't work on me!" she screams while rushing him again.
'Ok, she's definitely a better fighter than All Might, I guess having less power means she has to be to pull off the same meathead combat style for this long...plus she's all instinct which means the time between taking in stimulus and acting is a lot lower than other people.
That means my warping won't be as effective at close range to get free hits, she's like an extreme version of Bakugo...no, Bakugo is like a discount version of her.'
BOOSTER SHOT!
Instead of trying to amplify his offense Horizon does something he learned a long time ago. The exact same thing he taught Deku.
Spreading the energy around his body, focusing on the muscles needed for mobility rather than power in this case.
Since this ability activates at the speed of thought, just like his warping, he can afford to do this. Trying as best he can to bridge the infinite gap between his mental processing and his physical reaction speed.
"Lunar Rush!"
Mirko strikes with a flurry of powerful kicks, each packing enough force to knock out Horizon if they land a solid hit.
He barely manages to parry them with his blade.
Even with his boost to agility and dexterity, he couldn't keep up with Mirko physically.
She would launch one kick, and because of her speed, he'd barely be able to react, only defending or directing them to the side, not fast enough to capitalize on an opening to counter-attack.
His arms were numb at the fourth hit, now he couldn't feel them at all. Booster Shot constantly heals the stress only for her to start the process all over again with a few hits.
Eventually, she drops down to her hands and spins, raising both her legs up while supporting herself with her arms.
Her first kick in this stance knocks his sword to the side, but he sees an opening.
Pivoting and stepping back to avoid the second kick he spins around.
BOOSTER SHOT+INCISION!
His blade cuts into her thigh, reaching nearly an inch deep before it stops completely. It could easily go a bit deeper at the force he swung.
But it stopped, and Mirko lept away with it still in her leg, ripping it out of his hand.
The grip strength of her leg muscles is far superior to the strength in his hand, and if the blade isn't physically cutting, Incision can't enhance anything. She reflexively flexed her muscles and stopped his sword.
The difference between someone with a true Power Type Quirk, and someone with an ability that only replicates that effect. Just like the USJ Nomu was healing so quickly that when he tried to pierce its brain with Incision that the sword was being pushed out.
Because of this change in the battle, he doesn't doubt that Mirko is at least on par with its striking power.
Mirko takes the sword out of her leg and holds it tauntingly. "Not so tough without your little toys huh!"
"Would you believe it's only for picking up girls?"
"Awe, compensating for something?" She gives him a dark chuckle, dropping into a fighting stance to finish him off.
"Aren't we all compensating for something?" Horizon shrugs. "I mean, you only focus on violence because you're not smart, right?"
Mirko immediately sees red.
SHAMBLES!
Horizon warps his sword back into his hand.
Being someone who trust her instincts, and her prey instincts amplified hundreds of times over by her Quirk, Mirko feels all the hairs at the back of her neck stand up.
Suddenly it all fell into place in her brain.
'He really wasn't taking us seriously. Something changed. He's different now. What's happening? I should run. What?! I don't run! Heroes don't run away!
But this attack!
DANGER DANGER DANGER!'
She sees Horizon casually swing his sword through the air.
Her pupils dilated, a dangerous attack that her body couldn't withstand or resist. Heart rate hitting new record highs.
AMPUTATE!
Horizon swings horizontally.
Mirko ducks down, dropping to all fours.
She knew she couldn't take that hit, it would end her fight. But her brain wasn't sure what was going on, so she treated it like a gun.
She could dodge bullets with her raw speed. Kicking them out of the air wasn't anything special for her.
But this was different, these attacks hit instantly, so she had to do what Pros that can't dodge bullets do.
Dodge gunfire.
See where the barrel is pointing and get out of the way before the trigger is pulled, to the untrained it looks like the same thing, but dodging gunfire is much easier.
So before he can finish his quick slash Mirko is already ducked down, the top half of her rabbit ears get amputated but she doesn't feel it.
Before Horizon can adjust his sword she rushes forward, cratering the ground beneath her with how fast she launches into action.
As if time was frozen around her as an entirely new level of adrenaline took over, she got in front of him and does a small jump, making her body parallel to the floor, seeing his left hand reach out as if to grab her.
CURTAIN!
Both her feet slam into the dome of energy that he quickly formed. Her dropkick hits it harder than anything had ever before.
And the Curtain shatters.
BOOM!
The area in front of her gets pulverized by the air pressure of her kick and a dust cloud is kicked up.
"Argh!" Mirko reaches up to grab her ear, the most sensitive part of her. Only to realize they aren't there.
"I swapped places with them," Horizon's voice says from behind her, where her ears were.
"You!" Mirko turns around just in time to see the world going sideways.
All her limbs were quickly and quietly Amputated, causing her to begin falling to the floor as just a torso.
"Shambles," Horizon swaps for one of her legs and catches her by the neck, holding her up so she was at his eye level.
Everyone looks on in Horror as he holds the limbless Mirko above the ground as if she were nothing, then her other leg swaps for the unconscious Gang Orca, directly below her.
"You're better than I thought, at least for your style."
Mirko snarls in his face, "next time I'll kick your ass!"
"Says the woman with no legs."
"Yo---"
"Counter Shock!"
"ARRGHHHH!!"
To her credit, it takes an entire three-second tasing to knock her out. Then he simply drops her atop Gang Orca.
"Shambles!" he reassembles her, then looks around at everyone staring at him and the unconscious heroes.
Walking back to the safe zone as the final few civilians are rescued Horizon takes a few deep breaths, intent on taking it easy for the rest of the day.
'I've still got so much improving to do. My physicality isn't enough. My stamina pool isn't nearly enough... I'm nowhere near where I want to be, where I can be, I need to step up my training...'
Even beating two of the top 10 Pro Heroes that were fully intent on defeating him wasn't enough for Horizon.
It wasn't nearly enough.
Because to him, this is simply what's expected.
But to everyone else, it was an absurd achievement. And from all the people nearby taking pictures, it was one the public would soon know about.
As the exam is finished Eraser just sighs and shakes his head, seeing Horizon proceed to get his final score with the others.
Then he looks over to the Pros as medical teams come to wake them up.
'Mystery Class or not, the kid is a freak. Most villains wouldn't dream of beating one of the top Pro heroes, much less two. But why weren't these wearing any kind of restraints? It is an exam after all.
Hmm, they probably just figured since it's Horizon at this venue they needed a challenge. That kinda makes sense I guess. With how much Nezu brags about him I wouldn't doubt if that's the case.
I guess it doesn't really matter. Either way, his obsessive nature, Quirk, and capabilities are a combination you'd find inside any villain's nightmares. It's game over for them...'
While the students were waiting for their final scores the head proctor, Yokumiru Mera, was pacing around his private control room at this venue with his phone to his ear. All the tiredness in his demeanor was completely gone as he anxiously waited for someone to answer.
In this simple room was a wall of monitors. On the largest was a live feed of Gang Orca and Mirko being woken up and treated.
On another was Horizon sitting in the waiting area for his final results while everyone else was leaving to go change.
And on the third was his results, a perfect score in all stages. Making him one of three people alive and active to ever get this score in Japan.
Tied with Endeavor and Best Jeanist.
"Hello," Mera says as the call is answered.
"----"
"A perfect score."
"----"
"Yes, I know, it should be impossible. But he beat them. I'll send you the recording, if it isn't online already. Some of those kids had their phones out the whole fight."
"----"
"Yes, I know this wasn't the plan..."
"----"
"He only warped out about a dozen civilians."
"----"
"Are you sure I can't fail him on that? I mean he spent the entire time fighting after that and ignored everyone else."
"----"
"Well I guess it's true that nobody else could stop them, but if you really want him to fail I can make it happen."
"----"
"Alright. Then I guess this plan is a bust. We'll have to get him off the hero path some other way."
"----"
"Yes," Mera sighs. "I understand how detrimental it is for our plans if Horizon becomes a Pro Hero."
"----"
"That's true. But at this point can anyone stop him from being the next Symbol Of Peace? He beat 2 of the top ten Pro Heroes. Most villains never even get past one..."
"----"
"Yeah, I guess the next best thing is to put a deal together, get him to break whatever deal he has with Nezu, and come to our side..."
"----"
Mera sighs and hangs up, then turns to look at Horizon casually scrolling through his phone in the waiting area.
"To think I'd have to be so scared of a kid...but a world where he becomes the Symbol Of Peace, is a world we can't survive..."
END CHAPTER---
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