ATOMIC STRUGGLE

2「first round」9

"Without further ado, it's time for us to get started!" Midnight proclaimed once Bakugo had returned to the crowd of students in front of her, "This is where you start feeling the pain. The first fateful game of the festival!" A lottery-like machine started spinning above her.

"What could it be?" She teased. Finally, a challenge was chosen and appeared on the screen. "Tada!" It was an obstacle course race. "All 11 classes will participate in this race. The course will be the outer circumference of this stadium, about 4 kilometers!" Midnight raised her whip thingy. "I don't wanna restrain anyone, at least in this game," She licked her lips. "As long as you don't leave the course, you're free to do whatever your heart desires!" She beamed, then quickly winked.

A lot of people just thought the wink was a part of her character, but she was winking at a certain someone to let him know that he, too, could go as hard as he wanted. Izak just gave her a thumbs up, not intending to take her up on the offer since he didn't want to stand out.

"Now then, take your places, contestants!" the R-rated hero proclaimed. Thus, the gate around the huge exit of the coliseum had three bulbs at the top, which all turned bright green. The light went off in the first one, signalling the count down for the race to begin. The next faded to dark green, then the last, and everyone was off.

Green sparks lit up the corridor as Midoriya jumped from wall to wall, propelling himself forward. Izak hummed to himself, proud at how much progress he'd made. Even though they had started at one percent of One For All, by their last session, Midoriya was using up to five percent.

"DEKU YOU BASTARD!" Bakugo yelled, flying over the cluster of people pushing and shoving each other to get through.

"And we're off to a racing start! How about some commentary over there?" Present Mic suggested to Aizawa, who was watching the entrance. He turned his head slightly, obviously not thrilled with having the loud man practically in his ear in the enclosed space.

"How did you talk me into this?" He grumbled.

"What should we be paying attention to in the early stages of the race?" The loud blonde prompted, this time actually receiving an answer.

"The doorway." Aizawa said, not taking his eyes off of it. Actually, his eyes were on Izak, who was hanging at the back of the pack, probably to not draw attention and also to avoid human contact.

"Oh," Izak looked down as the corridor was frozen, and thus his feet as well. "Well this won't do," He shook the ice off, easily breaking it and being able to walk forward. Thanks to Todoroki's attack, many of the contestants were frozen in place, though many more had avoided being frozen and were now in hot pursuit of the three in the lead.

"Ooooo enemies have shown up outta nowhere!" Mic exclaimed. "I bet we're in for a treat here! A test of strength and cunning~ It's a robo-inferno!!"

"Hm," The maroonette hummed once he'd exited the corridor to the outside, finding that Todoroki had frozen one of the huge robots and ran through, leaving him in first place. Then, before anyone could take advantage of him freezing the way, the robots fell, having been frozen while off balance. "Not bad," Izak mused as he went forward.

"That's Todoroki from Class 1A, pulling ahead with an early lead from a devestating display!" Mic seemed exited as he smacked the table. "Amazing! He's what we should watch! It almost seems unfair~ thoughts?!" He gave a thumbs up to his partner, who begrudgingly began explaining.

"His attack was both offensive and defensive."

"No wonder he was let in through recommendations!" the blonde pro grinned. "He'd never even fought those robo-infernos before, but they didn't stand a chance against his jaw-dropping moves! Oop, what's this?!" Mic leaned forward. "It's a comeback from Midoriya! Charging in, he just took care of a two pointer, and jumped over the crashed zero pointer! Bakugo is also in hot pursuit!"

"I can do this," Midoriya mumbled to himself as he landed on the other side of the zero pointer.

"The first year students are rounding off to a rocking start, and it's only the first round!" Present Mic yelled. "Talk about a cool obstacle course~ Our players are racing against each other in a vicious battle where anything goes--" He swung his arm, narrowly missing hitting Aizawa square in the face. "--As long as they stay on the track!"

"Watch it," Erasure growled.

"We'll continue to bring you live updates and pulse pounding actions thanks to the camera robots placed around the course!" The hero made some more moves, making the other hero even more annoyed.

"Why do you need me here?"

"The stakes are high! We've got a whole school of top-notch students trying to be heroes, but will they stand a chance against our heavy metal swarm of robo-infernos?! So far, several have gotten past them~" Mic leaned back. "Oh, there's Kirishima from class 1A, he was underneath the roboinfero!? That's crazy! Woooo, TetsuTetsu from class 1B was also stuck underneath, what are the odds?!"

"How should I do this?" Izak asked himself once he finally stood on the front lines against the robots. Before he could think of doing anything, Yaoyorozu blasted them all away with a cannon she made. Honestly, Izak found it kind of impressive, but not enough to write home about as some might say.

Once the zero pointers were out of the way, everyone started running through them. "For those of you who thought the first obstacle was too easy, let's see what you think of the second one!" Present Mic grinned at the pit facing the contestants. "If you fall, you're out! If you don't wanna fall, then crawl! It's The Fall~"

"In the world of heroes, it can be hard to get popular without a flashy quirk, right Eraserhead?" the blonde hero teased, instantly pissing the guy off.

"I don't know what you're talking about, idiot."

"Looks like Todoroki is still skating by easily~" Mic observed after having moved on from the conversation. Todoroki had just made it to the other side of The Fall, Bakugo hot on his trail. Midoriya had fallen behind since he wasn't confident enough to make the jumps, so he'd chosen to crawl on the ropes and give his quirk a break. He was still in the top ten since not many people were ahead of him, so the greenette didn't lose hope.

He was going to overtake both Todoroki and Bakugo to show Izak and All Might that all of his training had paid off, that it wasn't just wasted time and effort. That he, Izuku Midoriya, was a serious contender!