Latibule

48 - ᴛʜᴇ ʙᴇᴀꜱᴛꜱ' ꜰᴏʀᴇꜱᴛ ᴀɴᴅ ᴍᴏʀᴇ

Previously on Latibule:

Everything rumbled and suddenly we were in the air.

As we fell, I quickly formulated a plan in my head. The nearer the ground got, the more certain I became in my abilities.

Then, when it was time, I thought, Here goes...

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Latibule — Chapter 48///The Beasts' Forest And More

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A moment before I was about to hit the ground, I let a bit of energy roll off of me. It pushed against the ground, slowing me down and creating a little dent that I landed into.

Groaning, I sat up. So this is what meteors feel like...

As my classmates were also experiencing their own I-don't-know-if-my-bones-are-broken-or-not moments, the brunette cat here called down to us from the ledge. "Good news! Since this is private land, you can use your quirks as much as you want to!" She paused, gazing off to the distance for a second. "You've got three full hours! You should be able to make it to the facility in that time." She chuckled. "That is, if you can get through the Beasts' Forest."

We glanced at the woods towering over us at her words. Beasts...?

Mineta was the first to bolt, obviously wanting to relieve himself, and he'd just reached the tree line when there was a low growl.

Koda tried to talk to the monster, assuming it'd work because of his quirk, but it didn't and it was left to Midoriya to rescue Mineta.

It didn't take much time for people like Iida and Todoroki to bolt past me and run to the scene, prompting the rest of us to follow them into the forest where more beasts emerged.

In a minute, the class was surrounded, there were even dirt-beasts in the air.

"Don't you think this is a little unfair," Kaminari wailed as I struggled to make out the monsters that so well camouflaged into the background.

Seeing one, I took action, crouching and pinpointing where I wanted the energy to go, letting it travel through the ground and up the beast's legs, cracking the mud. Midoriya, who was beside me, quickly realised what I was doing and delivered the final punch, after which the beast was left as a pile on the ground which Todoroki froze over before the blonde hero, whose name I'd learned to be Pixie Bob, could reassemble it.

From there, we got into a nice rhythm. Those with close-range quirks teamed up with those who had long-range ones to take down the monsters on the ground while those who had ways to propel themselves in the air or between the trees dealt with the monsters that were left in the air.

The rhythm wasn't difficult to follow, per say, but it started getting tiring after a while. By the time at which I knew for a fact that we'd missed lunch, the emotions of my classmates started getting more and more agitated, which made my quirk a bit more difficult to control, as I couldn't so well aim it through the ground anymore.

One time I even accidentally created a hole right in front of Iida, who tripped over the edge of it.

"Sorry, my bad!" I exclaimed, a bit out of breath as I dodged a monster's hit.

As time went on, it didn't get any better. My classmates, as well as I, started growing even more weary and with the sun setting and light lessening, the energy in the air decreased significantly, thus rendering me pretty helpless if I didn't want to faint then and there.

My classmates weren't doing any better, most of them having overused their quirks so they were either physically or mentally hurt and, with the distance we'd gone through, I could tell that everyone's legs were slowly starting to go numb, also.

In short, the situation was not exactly rainbows and unicorns when we finally reached the camping facility, where the heroes, as well as our homeroom teacher and the kid, were waiting for us.

"You said it would only be three hours," Kirishima complained.

"I guess we timed it on how long it would take us, sorry," the brunette hero apologised, looking only a tad less apologetic than I would've expected her to.

"Now you're bragging about how much better you are? That's so mean..." Sato pointed out.

"I'm starving!" Kirishima added and I couldn't help but agree. "This is hell!"

With that, I couldn't help but disagree.

"Oh... I thought it would take you kids even longer!" the blonde exclaimed. "But you did much better against my dirt monsters than I thought you would!" She dropped the bubbly act. "You guys were seriously great. Especially the four of you!" She pointed to Bakugou, Todoroki, Midoriya and Iida. "It seems like you've had quite a bit of experience!"

I sighed, sitting down as I tried to tune out Pixie Bob, whose cat side was apparently coming out in a bunch of weird tendencies.

It took a few minutes but we finally got back on track when Midoriya asked about the kid.

The brunette, who Mr Aizawa had called Mandalay just moments prior, realised her mistake of not introducing him earlier. "Oh, this little guy? He's actually my cousin's son, he just lives with us now. Don't be shy, Kota, say hi to everyone. You're gonna be around them for the next week."

The kid looked at us all murderously, not changing when Midoriya walked up to him.

"Hey, there, my name's Midoriya, I'm from the U.A. High School hero course. It's nice to meet you." He put a hand out.

The kid, Kota, didn't hesitate for a moment and just simply punched Midoriya where the sun didn't shine.

I would've been surprised, and I was, a bit, but I was mostly just too tired to care.

"What a low blow!" Iida exclaimed, rushing over to Midoriya. "This is unforgivable!"

Kota turned around, as he'd begun to walk away, and made unafraid eye contact with our class representative. "The last thing I want is to hand with some wanna-be heroes!"

"Wanna-be?!" Iida took offence. "How old are you, kid?"

A bit to my right, Bakugou's mood shifted to some kind of amused tinges of orange and yellow. "That brat's got spunk."

"He's like a mini version of you," Todoroki commented.

"What are you talking about?! You should just shut your mouth before I blast you all the way to hell!"

I leaned back onto my hands, looking up at the orange sky in the short moment of silence. This is going to be a long and exhausting week, I realised. But... I don't think I'll mind. Seems pretty fun, too.