Stronger Together

Twenty-two: Battle Begin

   "Iida, stay on the outside until I say," Todoroki orders.

   "Right!" Iida takes off and hangs right on the boundary of the arena. Whenever someone got too close, I shot them a glare. In most cases, the front of the horse would cower and freeze, leaving the rest of the team confused about what happened. I followed Iida's path making sure no one tried to take our band.

   "Okay, there's an opening. Go to Midoriya now!" Todoroki calls. We all nod and follow his orders. When we reach Midoriya, we come to a halt. Midoriya's face looks terrified. "The time has come. I'm taking it," Todoroki states sending Izuku a glare.

   "I did suppose we'd have to face them near enough to the final fast of the battle but...They're really determined aren't they, Midoriya?" Tokoyami asks.

   "Iida, advance." Todoroki orders.

   "Got it!" He says bolting forward toward Midoriya's team.

   "Yaoyorozu, get our guard ready!"

   "On it!"

   "Hanzo-"

   "I'm ready!" I say. Todoroki nods and leans to one side so I can free my hand.

   "Now go!" At his command, our group makes a wide turn so I can scratch the front of each horse around us, causing each group to either stumble or fall. A few riders even fell off completely. I link my hand back with Iida's and Todoroki assumes his normal position. "Good job. There are less than six minutes left on the clock." He takes the pole from Yaoyorozu and puts the end on the ground. "Sorry about this. Just endure it for a sec," He says before freezing everyone around us in their spots. "Go!" He orders again. Our group then takes all the headbands around us, gaining us more points. "I'll be taking these."

   "Hell yeah!" I shout. We then head back for Midoriya who seems scared about what's to come.

   "The backpack is breaking down!" He cries looking back at his jet pack.

   "My baby!!! It still has room for improvement!" The chick behind him says. 'Why is a gen ed kid on his team?'

   "I'll stop them!" Tokoyami says sending out his shadow.

  "Yaoyorozu!" Todoroki says right as a large piece of metal blocks an attack from Tokoyami. He groans with a scowl and Momo smirks back.

   "Damn, that creation quirk is something else!"

   "There's only about a minute left and Todoroki has set the field!" Present Mic says over the commotion. "All that's left is taking that ten million points! It'll be swiped in an instant!!! Or so I thought five minutes ago. Midoriya has done quite well to keep away in that time. Even in this constricted space."

   "Stand your ground!" Izuku shouts to his group. 

   "Damn you..." Todoroki mutters.

   "Guys," Iida catches out attention. "We have less than a minute... and I'm afraid I'll be useless after this. So I'm counting on you."

   "Iida?" I ask.

   "Grasp tight!" He says before a loud rumble could be heard coming from his engines. "Take it Todoroki! Torque over! Reciprocating burst!" With that Iida takes off, dragging Momo and me behind him. When we slow, I see that Todoroki managed to grab the ten million.

   "We did it!" I say

   "WHAAAAA?!!" Present Mic seems shocked too. "What happened?! That was blisteringly fast! Iida, if you have super acceleration,  why didn't you use it in the preliminaries?!"

   "Iida, what was that just now?" Todoroki asks tying the band around his neck.

   "I can forcefully rev up my torque to explosive proportions if need be. However, as kickback I'll suffer from engine stall in short order. That was the trick up my sleeve I never told my classmates about," Iida explains. "I thought I told you, Midoriya. I'm challenging myself against you!"

   "After them!" Midoriya shouts charging up what seems to be a punch. 'Shit!'

   "20 seconds!"

   Todoroki goes to block with his left arm on fire, but freezes up, letting Izuku snatch a headband. 'Oh, please don't let it be the ten mil...'

   "I got it! I got it!" Izuku cheers.

   "Pull your wits about you, Todoroki! That was dangerous!" Iida scolds. Luckily, Izuku had only grabbed 70 points from us.

   "We shuffled the order just in case! That was naive, Midoriya!" Momo smirks. The crowd then starts counting down from ten, signifying the battle was ending.

   "TIME UP! Shall we see who our top five are? In first place, Team Todoroki!"

   "...shit.." Todoroki mumbles. 'I wonder what's wrong.

   "In second place, Team Bakugou!" 'Oh good, they all advanced.' "In third place, Team Tetsute-huh?! It's team Shinsou!" Todoroki jumps off of us and our horse form disassembles. "And in fourth place, Team Midoriya!"

   "What?!" I ask.

   "Tokoyami grabbed the band off his head while we were distracted," Momo explains.

   "Oh..."

   "The first four teams will move onto the final event, so step forward! The event will be after a one-hour lunch break! See you then!"