Once I recovered from nearly fainting from exhaustion, having downed an entire water bottle in a matter of seconds, we were onto the next round.
"The first game of the first-year stage is finally over." Midnight announced. "Now, take a look at the results!"
I looked at the board and saw that most of the people that had gotten through were from either both hero courses or possibly a lucky slip in from the other courses.
'29th place huh? Not bad...' I thought to myself, and saw that Deku had gotten first place.
"The top 46 made it through to the next round. It's unfortunate but don't worry even if you didn't make it! We've prepared other chances for you to shine." Midnight explained with a grin and licking her lips. "The real competition begins next!"
"The press cavalry'll be all over it!, give it your all!" She continued, making me look at her, wondering what the next event is.
She flicked the whip into the air as the next activity was shown.
"Now then, here is the second game. I already know what it is, but what could it be? What could it be?" She said as the words spun around quickly.
"I just said it, and now here it is...Cavalry battle!" She announced as the words stopped and showed the next activity which was indeed, cavalry battle.
'How would that work?'
"Let me explain. The participants can form teams of two to four people as they wish. It's basically the same as a regular cavalry battle, but the one thing that's different is based on the results of the last game, each person has been assigned a point value." Midnight explained as photos on the screen showed up to help explain.
'Point-based huh?' I thought, wondering how the point system worked. 'So each team would have a different point value depending on who's on the team.'
There was murmurs through the group but Midnight whipped the whip down angrily. "You guys don't hold back even though I'm talking, huh?!" Which made everyone shut up.
"Yes that's right! And the points assigned go up by five starting from the bottom. So 42nd place gets 5 points and 41st gets 10 points and so forth!" She said before grinning. "And the point value assigned to first place is...10 million!"
My head immediately turned towards Deku, like everyone else, though the poor guy seemed to shrink away from the gazes.
"It's survival of the fittest, with a chance for those at the bottom to overthrow the top!" Midnight announced. "You have 15 minutes to form teams, time starts now!"
I walked a bit away from Deku, it's nothing against him, but I was trying to keep a low profile. By teaming up with the person with the most points would gain a lot of attention.
Though I think Deku had other plans.
"(Y/n)!" I heard someone yell, making me see both Uraraka and Deku running towards me.
"You want to team up? If we get Iida with us we'd probably have a good chance on winning or getting through!" Uraraka asked with a grin.
"Yeah! Let's go ask Iida now!" Deku agreed.
"Uh, but..." I started but they were already heading over to Iida.
"Iida! Want to team up? With your speed we'd be able to maneuver around faster and Uraraka could make us float..." Deku started, already beginning to mumble ideas for the four of us.
I glanced at Iida who was looking away. "Apologies, Midoriya."
"Huh?"
"But I can't develop or grow myself if I continue to work with you, you are a great person but someone else has already asked me to be on their team..." Iida said before walking off a little and standing where Kaminari, Todoroki and Yaoyorozu stood. "But there's one more person declaring war against you."
Deku looked shocked for a second before nodding. "Understand, then let's give it our all."
He then turned around to both Uraraka and I. "So, we'll need one more person..."
"Uhhh, I'm sorry, but I don't really want to be part of a large target..." I mumbled before seeing their frowns. "It's nothing against you two! It's just that with over 10 million points you guys would be the biggest target and I don't really have anything to offer to the group unfortunately. Sorry." I explained quickly.
Uraraka sighed. "Oh well, but good luck!"
I grinned and sent them a wave before looking for another team to join.
As I looked around I noticed people were already starting to form teams, I had to be quick to find a group. It was evident that people in both classes were teaming up, though there were a couple of mixed teams I could see.
I noticed Ojiro over with a guy with billowing purple hair, a short guy with blue hair and Aoyama. Though all of them except the purple guy had a bit of a blank dazed look on their faces.
I saw Dylan talking to a couple of girls from 1-B I'm pretty sure, seeming to make a truce of some sort.
I was about to walk over until I heard someone call my name.
I looked and saw Mineta and Shoji waving me over, so I changed my direction and walked over to them.
"Hey, want to team up?" Mineta asked. "Shoji could use his arms to cover us if he's the horse, I could use my quirk to trap people and you can...help get points." He suggested.
I shrugged. "Eh, why not? Also thanks for saving me from the second obstacle."
"Don't mention it." Shoji replied, rubbing his neck.
"I wonder if we can get anyone else on our team..." Mineta muttered, eyes scanning the area before his eyes lit up. "Tsu! Come team up with us!"
I glanced at Mineta suspiciously as the frog girl hopped over.
"Ribbit? What do you want?" She asked.
I saw Mineta's eyes travel down her and opened his mouth before I pushed him out of the way.
"Would you like to team up with us?" I asked.
"What is the strategy for this? Ribbit."
"Well, Shoji could use his quirk to shield us if, and we could use your quirk and Mineta's to get points." I explained.
She put a finger on her chin in thought before finally nodding. "Seems promising, ribbit, I'll join you."
I grinned and nodded.
"Two minutes until it starts! Please collect your headbands."
"Wow, 570 points?" I whistled as I saw the value as Mineta tied the band around his head before we got into formation.
Shoji was going to be the horse, Mineta the leader, Tsu the right wing and me the left wing. I watched as Shoji duplicated more limbs, creating some sort of mesh-seat for everyone to sit on and to be shielded by.
"Are you sure you'll be able to support all of us?" I asked a little hesitantly as both Tsu and Mineta climbed onto his back.
"Yeah, I'll be fine, don't worry." He replied. "Now get on, it's going to start soon."
I nodded and climbed on before settling down next to Mineta, Shoji's arms getting ready for when the event started, it was a bit of a squish, but we'd make it work.
"Okay, Tsu can attack with her tongue, I can use my quirk and...what can you do (Y/n)?" Mineta asked, looking at me.
"Uhhhhh...I could help...throwing your..." I paused as I hovered a hand over Mineta's head. "Grapes."
I plucked one off his head and attempted to throw it, but it just stuck to my hand.
"Oops, sorry about that." He said and soon the grape got unstuck and I softly threw it into the air. "Yeah, you can do that I guess, just don't pull too many off at once though please."
"Got it." I replied and heard Midnight crack her whip, gaining everyone's attention.
She grinned and stretched. "Now then, it's about time to get started!"
We got ready, groups already seeming to circle around Deku's team, which consisted of him, Uraraka, Tokoyami and the girl who had all of that support gear on her from earlier.
"Shoji, circle around everyone as the first attack will probably be Midoriya until we can find an opening to attack then." Mineta muttered.
"3!" Midnight called out.
"2!"
"1!"
"Start!" She yelled, cracking her whip.
Shoji's arms flew up to shield us as I got the grape in my hand ready to throw as he started to run, looking for an opening.
Sure enough, everyone was going after the group with the 10 million points, someone seemed to be making them sink into the ground, though Deku seemed to press a button and soon they were up in the sky, evading everyone's attacks, including Bakugo's.
"Shoji, quick! They're landing!" Mineta cried as they landed.
"Right!" He replied, starting to run towards the group.
Deku noticed us and looked confused.
"This is a one sided pillage!" Mineta cried with a grin as we ran closer.
"Shoji? What, all by himself?" I heard Deku ask before looking around again as the teams started heading towards them again.
I threw the ball in my hand and saw it land nearby to Uraraka, and she successfully stepped in it. I watched her start to panic as she looked down and noticed that her foot was stuck in the ball.
Deku looked down before looking around, seemingly for Mineta.
"Over here...Midoriya..." Mineta called over to him in a creepy tone.
"What? Mineta and Tsuyu?!" He cried.
"I said call me Tsu!" Tsu cried before trying to grab the points with her tongue.
"Hey and I'm here too." I said, moving a bit to wave before starting to pick off the grapes on top of Mineta's head along with him and started to throw them at the group.
"(Y/n)?!"
Deku swiftly managed to avoid the attacks before pressing the button from earlier again and managing to fly off again, but for the price for one of their gadgets to break.
"It'll be fruitless if we continue going after them, why don't we try and get more points from the other groups." Mineta instructed and so we did.
Or tried to at least.
We managed to trap some groups with Mineta's quirk but their quirks managed to defend themselves from us getting points.
"This isn't going how I thought to plan!" Mineta cried in frustration as the halfway mark was announced.
"Hey, when did you lose your headband?" Tsu asked.
Mineta paused before touching his head where the band once was.
"I DON'T KNOW!" He cried in despair, tears starting to form, before looking around with an angry look. "But now there's nothing left to lose! Shoji, full attack mode!"
"Right!" Shoji replied as he lifted his arms down and we were back after Deku's team, along with a few other teams seeming to have the same idea.
I saw Todoroki's team running alongside us, Yaoyorozu was seeming to create something.
"I know what to do!" I heard Kaminari say, crackles of electricity dancing around him. "Make sure you guard well!"
I saw Todoroki pull some sort of blanket around himself and the other group members of his team.
"Indiscriminate shock! 1.3 million volts!" Kaminari cried.
'Wait, isn't his quirk-" I started before feeling an enormous amount of electricity surge through me.
I let out a cry of pain along with everyone else who was affected, almost making me fall off, but I just managed to hold on.
As the shock wore off (I was still wondering how were people alive) Todoroki's team was after Deku's.
"Quick! After them!" Mineta cried.
"That's going to be a bit of a problem." Shoji replied and I looked down to see his feet encased in ice along with the other teams that were after the points.
A couple of teams yelled at Todoroki before large walls of ice were formed, caging their team in with Deku's.
I sighed as I looked at Tsu, Mineta and Shoji as I accepted defeat.
"This can't be how we go!" Mineta cried, "what do we do?!"
"Mineta we only have 2 minutes left, we're not going to be able to recover that quickly with getting enough points to get at least into fourth place." I replied, looking over to the screen which showed the top 4 teams that would be moving onto the next round.
I looked around seeing Dylan and his group were stuck, but Dylan seemed to be trying to melt the ice from around them slowly, though I noticed that their headband was gone as well.
———
"1 minute left!" Midnight announced.
The ice was starting to melt, but it wouldn't be fully melted any time soon.
———
"30 seconds left!"
"So....does anyone want to get lunch after this?" I asked, trying to break the silence.
———
"10 seconds!" Present Mic yelled over the intercom before him and the entire crowd counted down until 1.
"Times up!" Mic yelled as sirens went off to indicate the end of the second round.
"We lost!" Mineta cried as he slid off Shoji while I noticed Dylan run over to us.
"Need help getting unstuck?" He asked.
"Yes please." Shoji replied and Dylan got to work melting the ice.
"I only teamed up with you guys because I thought it was a good strategy, but turns out I was wrong." Tsu said with a sigh.
"Sorry about that." I apologised.
"Now let's take a look at the top four teams right away!" Mic yelled.
"First place, Team Todoroki!"
"In second place, Team Bakugou!"
"In third place, Tetsute- Huh? What, it's Team Shinsou?! When did you come from behind?!"
I tilted my head in surprise, I wonder what happened.
"In fourth place, Team Midoriya!"
"These four teams will advance to the final round!" Mic yelled as the crowd cheered wildly. "But now, we'll take an hour's break for lunch before we start the afternoon festivities!"
"So, does anyone want to get lunch?" I asked.
Word count: 2356 words