Rejected Stones

Red Horse Riding

Beta'd by kylekatarn77 and Poliamida

65. Red Horse Riding

Wash the spears — while the sun climbs high.

Wash the spears — while the sun falls low.

Wash the spears — Who fears to die?

Wash the spears — No one I know!

-Aiel Battle Chant, The Wheel of Time

Fights were nothing new to Izuku. He'd fought the League of Villains at Kamino, he'd fought the MLA half a dozen times, and he'd witnessed the destruction of the Shie Hassaikai. Some had even called those battles, the Battle of Kamino, or the Battle of Feel Good. Izuku now knew that those appellations had not been truthful. They had been fights, deadly ones, but they had not been battles. They had not been part of a war.

Now, Izuku found himself in the midst of a battle, at war truly and completely with the MLA. He and Class 1A had fallen back to a strip mall, using cars and a low brick fence as a sort of barrier, with the buildings behind them. A wave of hundreds of the MLA's soldiers rushed at them, using quirks to wreck destruction on a grand scale. Izuku had fired off a wave of missiles as Class 1A retreated, and he now knew one thing for certain: he had killed people.

It had been a brief, sickening moment as the missiles streaked forward, then impacted on their foes. Izuku had seen shockwaves and fireballs annihilate the first rank of the MLA. He had seen bodies ripped to shreds, blood and limbs fly through the air, and heard the screams of the wounded and dying as he fell back. For a brief moment, he had thought he was going to vomit, was going to freeze, would be unable to continue.

And then Iida screamed in pain as a fireball from the MLA took his leg off at the knee. Iida cartwheeled onto the pavement, grabbing the ruin of his leg and howling. Sero's tape had lashed out to draw Iida back, and Izuku didn't hesitate. He fired again, and again, until his missile banks ran dry. He didn't know how many of the MLA's soldiers he had killed. Dozens, maybe even a hundred. What he did know is that it wasn't enough.

Todoroki used a wall of ice to form a barricade before them, granting Class 1A a chance to draw back, to think. Bakugo was swearing, administering First Aid to Iida, putting a tourniquet onto the leg. Along with a grenade launcher, Bakguo was carrying most of their medical supplies, having volunteered as their medic, as he had no quirk to fight on the front lines.

"Izuku, what do we do?" Uraraka cried, as the MLA battered at the ice barrier.

Swallowing, Izuku looked around. "We have to link up with the other classes! It's our only hope of not being overwhelmed, cut off and surrounded in little pockets! Are the radios working?"

"We're being jammed," Yaoyorozu stated grimly. "We walked right into a trap."

"Right. Well, we know where they're supposed to be, and we can see the fighting, there. That's got to be where 1B is. Come on! Let's move!" Izuku ordered, and Class 1A formed up and followed after him. Uraraka made Iida weightless, and Bakugo hauled the now unconscious boy on his shoulder, firing his grenade launcher from the hip as the MLA broke through the ice wall.

"Try to get through to 1B! Let them know we're coming for them!" Izuku told Kaminari. "See if you can boost the signal somehow!"

"Right, on it!" Kaminari agreed, using his enhanced communications gear that was fueled by his quirk.

Izuku took the lead, smashing through a house with Kirishima at his side. In the street they found more MLA soldiers waiting for them, and Izuku didn't hesitate. He fired his laser and charged forward, then swung with his fists. His laser cut a bloody swath through the soldiers, then a mutant type that could turn into a giant bear-like monster tried to grapple with him. Izuku grabbed an arm and wrenched it right out of the socket, the bear-like man roaring in pain. He went down, and Izuku moved forward. Behind him, Sato delivered a coup-de-grace, crushing the man's skull beneath his foot with a bellow of rage before it could rise and attack again.