Latibule

03 - ᴘᴏɪɴᴛꜱ & ᴘᴇᴏᴘʟᴇ

Previously on Latibule: 

"Let's hear a plus ultra!"

Silence.

"Good luck," the hero went on as he had been ready for no response. "Let's hope you've been practicing more than just books."

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Latibule — Chapter 3///Points & People

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I hadn't seen anyone I knew (not that I knew many people here, or, in general) and I considered that a bonus. I could completely focus on controlling my quirk—

I spotted ash blond hair from my peripherals. I sighed. I'd just have to do with competing someone who hates me for standing in a doorway.

The gates creaked, starting to open. Everyone froze. And then, as if it striking all of us at once that there aren't countdowns in battles, we all started moving. I heard explosions and a moment later, I saw the yelling boy fly ahead of everyone by using explosions coming from his hands.

I narrowed my eyes at him — he was serious competition.

Soon, the crowd dispersed and I slowed my step to walking, that way I could get my panting under control and would actually hear the approaching robots.

Creak.

I snapped my head to the right and right there, in an alley, stood a two-pointer.

I smiled lightly as it seemed to notice me and took the moment to analyze the robot. Only a split second after the robot jumped at me, I raised both of my hands and sent beams of energy to its weak points — the tail, neck, and leg connections of the scorpion-shaped robot. It crumbled before me and I smiled with pride as I felt my palms cool down.

I couldn't waste any more time, though, because the exam was limited, and started jogging on, hoping to spot another obstacle towards the center of the town.

Shortly, I arrived at a rather crowded scene. There were about three or four people trying to fight the dozen robots around them. The students were obviously overpowered, I could tell that right off the bat.

I aimed a beam at a one-pointer's chest and another two at a three-pointer. They crumbled, letting the students escape and take on the next ones.

I felt myself being loaded up again by all of the energy around me — the sun, the electricity in the robots, the emotions and quirks of the people around me.

I then realized that, in order to get as many points as possible, I needed to stick with a group so I'd be constantly loaded.

"Duck!" I heard someone yell and instinctively did so, a three-pointer's arm swishing through the air above me just a second later.

I frowned. If I wanted to get accepted, I'd have to step up my game.

I ducked out of the way of the three-pointer once again and sent a wave of energy at it, knocking it over and onto some debris which managed to invade the metal and take out the three-pointer for me (though I did do half the work).

I noticed more people and more robots gathering at the small area, making it practically a playground for the students who managed to stay on top of the robots and not under them (especially as they were falling down every second now).

With the energy radiating from everything, I had the perfect idea. The robots were all taller than us and currently, there were no students in the air, so—

An explosion was heard all over the place. I didn't even have to look up to see who it was. I heard him land a bit to my left, panting.

I didn't look at him, though. I couldn't lose another opportunity now that the air was empty of people again. I took a deep breath and threw my hands up, waves of energy radiating from them and short-circuiting the robots around all of us.

"Run!" someone exclaimed and I considered that quite a good idea.

The boy to my left scoffed and sent me a glare.

I shrugged apologetically before watching him blast off as I, too, took a few steps back to avoid getting crushed by any robots.

Dust started clearing and I quickly looked over my handiwork — I had taken down two one-pointers, a three-pointer and four two-pointers.

And, though that was quite the score, I knew I must've been quite a lot behind all the others with points. I mean — I had only 22!

I let out a breath, feeling my head spin slightly. Now that all the people were gone from around me, I definitely couldn't pull that move again. I'd have to do with the strategy I used at the very start of the exam.

I forced my legs to jog as I started feeling better with every step, the sunrays saving the day for me.

In the next few minutes, I came face-to-face with a few more robots, who I took down with newfound confidence. I kept track of my points, adding the three-pointer and the two one-pointers to my previous score.

Then I heard a creak that shook me to my core, followed by blood-curdling screams of terror.

Making my way through a narrow alley, I found myself on a wide street, packed with people and, as I had expected, the zero-pointer. The thing was absolutely enormous and I just couldn't blame the people running for escaping. In fact, I didn't think they were being cowardly at all. Instead, they seemed to be, well, interested in living another day.

I saw a few people standing in front of the robot, looking ready to take it on. I could tell that one was the ash-blond boy who had been messing with me and my plans for the whole day and the others seemed to, well, tolerate his presence.

I went to the right of a red-haired boy, as far as I could from the ash-blond one. "Need a hand?"

"Yeah."

"Sure."

"Not you again."

I rolled my eyes at the comment from the ash-blond, smiling at the other two. "So, what's the plan?"

"You get out of my way and I destroy that thing," the ash-blond answered with no hesitation.

"Yeah, sure, no way," I answered, not sparing him a glance due to the robot approaching.

"How about you save the arguing, we've got a situation," the third of the boys, who had a tail, called cool-bloodedly.

I inspected closer and indeed, a tiny person with bubble-shaped dark purple hair seemed to frantically run towards us, trying to avoid being stepped on. Which he was succeeding at, as of the moment. But for how long?

I furrowed my brows, I didn't have a defensive quirk nor a quirk that would help me get the person out of harm. I huffed. "What do we do?"

"I can get them out," the guy with the tail offered, "you three deal with the robot."

The ash-blond huffed, spotting a two-pointer from his peripherals. "You do that, I'll get more points."

I scoffed as he left. Self-centered little jackass.

The tailed guy bolted off towards the little person. The red-haired boy turned to you with an encouraging smile. "You ready for this?"

"Yeah," I nodded, determined to make the following actions count.

What happened next was a blur. I had followed the red-haired boy in running towards the robot, he had punched the robot with his quirk, creating a dent, and then I had fried its engines, making it crumble to the ground. The guy with a tail narrowly managed to get the small person out and the ash-blond boy was nowhere to be seen.

"Good job!" the red-haired boy praised.

"Yeah, you too," I said absentmindedly, high-fiving him as I searched for any possible robots to beat. I needed points, after all.

And just as I spotted one...

"Time's up!"