Breaking a promise

Chapter 22: Round 3

This was it.
The last round of the assessment. His team had a plan in place but at the back of his head it was prone to change. The classes were tied and he could see the rising tension between them. Monoma was frustrated from his loss in the previous round while Denki tried to calm Jiriou and assure her that the her team's loss wasn't her fault.
Itsuka.
She still looked uneasy but over what? The nightmare? The tied score? The fact that she might have to fight her boyfriend? Or something else?
"All round 3 participants take up your position at this time!" Midnight called out.
It took five minutes by a small bus to reach their cage's new location. Thanks to Todoroki, part of the forest had been burnt down and thus warranted the move.
"Alright everyone remember the plan?" Kirishima asked.
"BEGIN!"
Everyone nodded and took off in different directions. Uraraka followed Deku prepared to activate her quirk. As they made their way through the cold forest, Deku felt a strong twist in his stomach, a gut-wrenching feeling.
"Are you okay Deku?"
"U-U-Uh yeah I'm okay. Let's get airborne now!"
"Got it."
She tapped Deku and then herself; they started to float upwards without gravity pulling them down. As they cleared the tree tops, they couldn't see the foes. Perhaps they were too far away at the moment.
"Remember, Kuorio can travel through shadows so we need to stay in lit areas once we land."
"Yeah but I don't see anyone yet." Uraraka replied.
As she spoke, Deku noticed that the ground seemed to be getting moist. The trees were leaning and sinking into the ground.
"Deku! It's Mud man and Kuorio"
He looked down and saw Honenuki swimming through the ground; he must've been using his soften quirk to affect the whole playing field. And a shadow was moving alongside him.
"Just keep us up here!" Deku replied.
"We see you two! Kamakiri! Now!" Kuorio said.
Out of the blue, Jack Mantis jumped up from a tree and shot straight towards them. He quickly deployed his blade quirk while closing in for a strike.
"RED RIOT UNBREAKABLE!!"
Kirishima appeared in front of Deku and Uraraka and took the hit of the blades. He was fully hardened and bearing spikes.
"Damn!"
Kamakiri tried to strike again but got gut-punched by the red hair hero.
"I'll take of him; go!" Kirishima shouted.
"But what about the mud?!" Uraraka replied.
"Just stick to the plan! GO!"
The two continued to float along to the target area.
After several minutes, Deku noticed that the ground was getting closer than expected.
"Uraraka, we're not there yet!"
He turned his head around and saw she was completely green around the gills and was struggling holding in a lot of her stomach's contents.
"Hang in there! Just a little further!" He shouted.
But it was too late. Her quirk gave out and the two tumbled down to surface; it was a hard landing as he rolled several meters away from the impact point.
"Uugh-BLEH!"
She started vomiting up a rainbow of lunch and breakfast. He ran over to her and tried to lift her up. Uraraka continued throwing up for a few more seconds as Deku carried her on to the destination.
The other team's cage was in sight. So far it appeared no one had been captured yet.
"Okay we made it; now we just need Sero to arrive."
"Already here!" Came his voice from atop the cage.
"Alright! Glad you made it!" Deku replied.
"Hey what's wrong with Uraraka?"
"W-well her quirk-"
"Oh right now I remember; anyway I managed to get Shoda and Fukidashi ensnared."
"Great! Tokoyami knows where they are?"
"Yeah we sh-"
WHAM!!
A massive blow from behind Sero sent him flying off the cage. Kuorio stood in his place. Behind him came Kendo with a knocked out Kirishima in hand.
"We're faster than that. I had a feeling that you were headed here." He commented.
Sero was knocked out on the ground.
And the ground was turning into mud.
The plan was falling apart.
"Uraraka! Get Sero out of here fast!" Deku shouted as Kuorio merged with the shadows.
By that point, she seemed just well enough to comply. But she was stumbling still.
"One for all! Five percent!" Deku thought to himself as he charged up his quirk before jumping up and onto a tree.
He could see Sero rising into the air but not Uraraka.
"Kendo! Get the cage open while I got her!" Honenuki shouted from beyond sight.
Uraraka had been captured and Kirishima was likely about to be thrown in. The plan was completely ruined.
"I gonna carve you up fool!"
Kamakiri appeared from behind and threw a massive punch into Deku's stomach. His blades were deployed. Before he could land another blow, Deku unleashed five percent upon the human/preying mantis.
A series of quick and powerful kicks sent the attack into another tree, obliterating it, before getting stuck to another one.
With power raging, Deku lunged towards the cage at high speed. With luck, he impacted Honenuki just as he was about to put Uraraka in.
"Deku! Behind you!" She shouted.
"DETROIT SMASH!!"
He threw it straight at an emerging Kuorio; the latter was waiting in the darkness of the cage. He impacted the back of the cage and was knocked out.
Uraraka immediately grabbed Kirishima and pulled him out of the cage. All three immediately started to float upwards and away from the scene.
"Wait where's Sero?" Deku asked.
He looked around but didn't see him floating in the sky or anywhere else. Someone must've gotten him.
"Uraraka! Get Kirishima out of here! I'm going to find Sero!"
"But you'll be on your own!"
"Don't worry about me! Just try to avoid getting captured and get Sero's prisoners to our cage!"
She released him and he quickly landed back onto the soft ground. He immediately began running back towards 1B's cage.
Even with One for All, running through mud like this was proving challenging. It was very thick and resistant to flow, almost like fresh asphalt. As he continued, he realized that he had just been tricked.
The ground completely gave out from beneath him and he started to sink rapidly into the mud. He tried to jump out at eight percent power but it was no good; he had no solid ground to jump from.
As his neck quickly became submerged, there was a hint of yellow nearby.
It was Sero! He was still knocked out but lying against a tree big tree. That gave him an idea. As his eyes slipped beneath the surface, Deku aimed his gauntlets at the tree, hoped for the best and activated Black Whip.
His sight was mostly black from the mud but he felt the tendrils shoot out and latch onto something. He tried to pull himself out but it wasn't enough.
"One for All FULL COWLING FIFTEEN PERCENT!"
With mud in his eyes; Deku shot out of the ground and flew straight forward.
"IZUKU!"
The last thing he heard was the sound of breaking bones.