Some people say that the age of Superheroes started in World War II. Some people say that it...
Hero with a Thousand Faces (Gamer/Hero Academia/UQ Holder)
- Thread starter Queshire
- Start date
- Crossover Superhero
- Created
- Status
- Ongoing
- Watchers
- 41
- Recent readers
- 0
- Threadmarks
- 3
-
Statistics (3 threadmarks, 4.1k words)
User Total Queshire 3 Threadmarks Reader mode
1.1
Queshire
Wants a pink flamingo for their lawn.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Some people say that the age of Superheroes started in World War II. Some people say that it started the day the Fantastic Four had their accident, and others say it was the day a man with an S on his chest first showed up in Metropolis. Officially the first recorded incident of superpowers was a little more than a baby in China who glowed. Whenever you first mark it, the fact remains that for over a century superpowers more than anything else has shaped the course of human history.
Humanity has weathered alien invasions, apocalyptic scenarios and even full on war. They haven't just survived. They've thrived. Thanks to minds like Tony Stark and Reed Richards humanity has spread throughout the solar system with contacts with alien empires beyond. Thanks to the reveal of magic, energy and water concerns are a thing of the past. Four fifths of the population have some sort of superpower now. They are no longer even referred to as mutations. They are Quirks.
In many ways humanity has reached its zenith but the brighter the light the deeper the shadow. Heroes, great men and women, work tirelessly to protect that precious light, and now! It is time for you too to step up and be a Hero!
…
….
….
Well okay then.
Well... That was just weird. I just had an out of body experience while a movie announcer voice played in my head. It took me flying over a cityscape. We zoomed past a man made out of wood chasing a flying purse snatcher, circled around a space elevator that was all shining chrome and drifted over people just living their lives only with the help of fantastical superpowers.
Finally it ended on a slow pan around a girl. She was short, with blonde hair, horns and red scales scattered across her face like freckles. I didn't realize she was supposed to be me until my view rushed into her head and I could suddenly move again.
Or, rather, I could move again. I stood there gaping in confusion until a barking voice snapped me out of it.
A scowl with legs was pushing his way past a nervous looking green haired kid. All around me kids my age were making their way into a building. I had nothing better to do so I followed the flow inside.
I hit my first obstacle right away. There was an intake area. Everyone was splitting up to get into line at one of half a dozen desks. They were trading in some paperwork for a folder of information.
I wasn't sure if I had that paperwork. I wasn't entirely sure where I was. There was just the voice over and then here I was. I… should probably be freaking out about that more than I was.
What I did know was that my name was Astra Flare, race was Dragon and class was Mage at the moment. Wait… moment? No, no, that felt right.
I had time to experiment. There were enough people waiting that I could hang around the back of the room for a bit for the lines to thin out.
There was something in my mind. I'd almost describe it like a switch, except I couldn't just flick it from one option to another. I had to mentally push just to get it to wiggle a bit, nevermind switching it to a different option. It was on Mage at the moment, but I also had Warrior and Thief available at the moment. There was more though. There was a filling of emptiness, like there was missing pieces. More classes I could unlock?
I left it on Mage for now since experimenting seemed like a bad idea at the moment. The lines were still moving. I patted down my pockets to see if I had the paperwork. Nope, nope, not there. Ah, here it is! I… huh… I just pulled it out of a portal made out of a ring of broken line segments.
Without really thinking about it my left hand flicked through the right motions to call up an inventory. Well, judging by the label it was technically a storage box. Once I took the paperwork out it was empty, though it did say that I had 2,000 of… Some sort of unit of currency. I wasn't sure what it was. There was a drop down menu with different currencies. It turned out that it came to roughly $21.
Nobody screamed "burn the witch" at the sight of the storage box. I did get some odd looks, but they looked more impressed than anything else. Still, I hurried ti clutch the paperwork to my chest, close the storage box and get in line.
It turns out that this was a school. Everyone here was a student aiming to pass the entrance exam. I followed the directions to what was labeled as Entrance Exam Orientation. The room was huge. It looked more like a concert venue than an auditorium, and it needed all that space. I thought the intake I came through had a lot of people going through it, but it had to have only been one of several. There were students streaming into the room from several entrances. There had to have been room for thousands in there.
I ended up finding a seat next to a black haired boy.
"Good morning. I'm Iida Tenya," He introduced himself rotating in his seat towards me and giving me a short bow of his head. He moved like he was constantly doing the robot which was… weird, but hardly rated my top ten at this point.
"Astra Flare," I responded with a matching nod.
"A foreigner?" He asked at my name, which, hey, sure let's go with that.
I nodded.
"I'm from overseas," I said keeping it simple.
"Your mastery of Japanese is commendable," He said.
"Thanks?"
The lights in the auditorium snapped off before we could continue. The normal background conversation grew into murmurs at the sudden darkness, but that cut off when a voice rang out, "Weeeeeeeeelcome to today's live performance!"
A spotlight clicked on up on the stage to illuminate a man with sunglasses, slicked back blonde hair and most of a stereo around his neck, "Everybody say "Hey"!!"
…
…
…
Nope.
The best he got was someone in the row of seats above us muttering, "It's the voice hero, Present Mic. Wow! I listen to his radio show every week. It's inspiring. I guess all the U.A. teachers are pro-heroes after all,"
"Well that's cool my examinee listeners. I'm here to present the guidelines to your practical. Are you ready? YEAAAAAAAAAAH!!"
…
…
…
Nope again.
"Cool, cool, so here's how it's going to go my listeners. You'll be split into eight groups; A through G. You'll be having mock cityscape maneuvers. You can use whatever gear you want. After this presentation you'll each head to your assigned test location."
I checked the information folder they gave us. It looked like I was in group A for the test. Peeking over at Iida's it looked like he got group B. It was set up that way so people couldn't get help from their friends or people they knew from middle school. Well, at least that's what the people behind us said.
"In each site there will be three different enemies worth one, two or three points depending on their difficulty. You'll have ten minutes to get as many points as you can. Use your quirks to disable them however you want, but of course attacking other examinees is prohibited,"
"Excuse me!" Iida said standing up and raising a hand. A light clicked on to illuminate him and he took that as a cue to continue. He pointed at a sheet pulled from our information folders and said, "You said there were three types of enemies but on this handout there are clearly four different varieties. Such an obvious error, if it is one, is highly unbecoming of Japan's top hero academy,"
"Also," He declared turning to point at the the mutterer behind us, "You, with the curly hair. You've been muttering this entire time. It's distracting. If this is just some game to you then you should leave immediately,"
… Really…? Okay, so the constant comments from the peanut gallery were a bit annoying, but wasn't calling out someone like that a bigger distraction?
"Yeah, yeah, nice catch there listener. There is a fourth enemy but it's worth a whopping zero points! It's more of an environmental hazard. It'll rampage around at close quarters causing destruction. If you want to aim for the high score you're better off avoiding it for the little guys," Present Mic spoke up.
I studied the handout while Iida apologized. We were going against robots. The one point enemy was roughly humanoid shaped only with what looked like a unicycle scaled to motorcycle level for legs. The two pointer was a quadruped. It's tail was lifted up like a scorpion's though it didn't have any pinchers, while the three pointer looked like a turtle with a pair of missile launchers mounted on its back. The hazard almost looked like a gorilla only with tank treads instead of legs.
Present Mic ended with a quote from Napoleon and a "Plus Ultra." Then we were each loaded onto a series of buses and driven to the testing area.
~~~
Author's Note: Have you ever wondered what an MMO character must look like in character? They just pop up, fully grown with no home, no past and no family. Sure they know stuff like math and such, but most of the time they have no clue about the world around them or its history. Honestly, it's a perfect set up for an SI. Shame I would be so boring as an SI so we get an original character instead!
Humanity has weathered alien invasions, apocalyptic scenarios and even full on war. They haven't just survived. They've thrived. Thanks to minds like Tony Stark and Reed Richards humanity has spread throughout the solar system with contacts with alien empires beyond. Thanks to the reveal of magic, energy and water concerns are a thing of the past. Four fifths of the population have some sort of superpower now. They are no longer even referred to as mutations. They are Quirks.
In many ways humanity has reached its zenith but the brighter the light the deeper the shadow. Heroes, great men and women, work tirelessly to protect that precious light, and now! It is time for you too to step up and be a Hero!
…
….
….
Well okay then.
~~~
Hero with a Thousand Faces
~~~
Hero with a Thousand Faces
~~~
Well... That was just weird. I just had an out of body experience while a movie announcer voice played in my head. It took me flying over a cityscape. We zoomed past a man made out of wood chasing a flying purse snatcher, circled around a space elevator that was all shining chrome and drifted over people just living their lives only with the help of fantastical superpowers.
Finally it ended on a slow pan around a girl. She was short, with blonde hair, horns and red scales scattered across her face like freckles. I didn't realize she was supposed to be me until my view rushed into her head and I could suddenly move again.
Or, rather, I could move again. I stood there gaping in confusion until a barking voice snapped me out of it.
A scowl with legs was pushing his way past a nervous looking green haired kid. All around me kids my age were making their way into a building. I had nothing better to do so I followed the flow inside.
I hit my first obstacle right away. There was an intake area. Everyone was splitting up to get into line at one of half a dozen desks. They were trading in some paperwork for a folder of information.
I wasn't sure if I had that paperwork. I wasn't entirely sure where I was. There was just the voice over and then here I was. I… should probably be freaking out about that more than I was.
What I did know was that my name was Astra Flare, race was Dragon and class was Mage at the moment. Wait… moment? No, no, that felt right.
I had time to experiment. There were enough people waiting that I could hang around the back of the room for a bit for the lines to thin out.
There was something in my mind. I'd almost describe it like a switch, except I couldn't just flick it from one option to another. I had to mentally push just to get it to wiggle a bit, nevermind switching it to a different option. It was on Mage at the moment, but I also had Warrior and Thief available at the moment. There was more though. There was a filling of emptiness, like there was missing pieces. More classes I could unlock?
I left it on Mage for now since experimenting seemed like a bad idea at the moment. The lines were still moving. I patted down my pockets to see if I had the paperwork. Nope, nope, not there. Ah, here it is! I… huh… I just pulled it out of a portal made out of a ring of broken line segments.
Without really thinking about it my left hand flicked through the right motions to call up an inventory. Well, judging by the label it was technically a storage box. Once I took the paperwork out it was empty, though it did say that I had 2,000 of… Some sort of unit of currency. I wasn't sure what it was. There was a drop down menu with different currencies. It turned out that it came to roughly $21.
Nobody screamed "burn the witch" at the sight of the storage box. I did get some odd looks, but they looked more impressed than anything else. Still, I hurried ti clutch the paperwork to my chest, close the storage box and get in line.
It turns out that this was a school. Everyone here was a student aiming to pass the entrance exam. I followed the directions to what was labeled as Entrance Exam Orientation. The room was huge. It looked more like a concert venue than an auditorium, and it needed all that space. I thought the intake I came through had a lot of people going through it, but it had to have only been one of several. There were students streaming into the room from several entrances. There had to have been room for thousands in there.
I ended up finding a seat next to a black haired boy.
"Good morning. I'm Iida Tenya," He introduced himself rotating in his seat towards me and giving me a short bow of his head. He moved like he was constantly doing the robot which was… weird, but hardly rated my top ten at this point.
"Astra Flare," I responded with a matching nod.
"A foreigner?" He asked at my name, which, hey, sure let's go with that.
I nodded.
"I'm from overseas," I said keeping it simple.
"Your mastery of Japanese is commendable," He said.
"Thanks?"
The lights in the auditorium snapped off before we could continue. The normal background conversation grew into murmurs at the sudden darkness, but that cut off when a voice rang out, "Weeeeeeeeelcome to today's live performance!"
A spotlight clicked on up on the stage to illuminate a man with sunglasses, slicked back blonde hair and most of a stereo around his neck, "Everybody say "Hey"!!"
…
…
…
Nope.
The best he got was someone in the row of seats above us muttering, "It's the voice hero, Present Mic. Wow! I listen to his radio show every week. It's inspiring. I guess all the U.A. teachers are pro-heroes after all,"
"Well that's cool my examinee listeners. I'm here to present the guidelines to your practical. Are you ready? YEAAAAAAAAAAH!!"
…
…
…
Nope again.
"Cool, cool, so here's how it's going to go my listeners. You'll be split into eight groups; A through G. You'll be having mock cityscape maneuvers. You can use whatever gear you want. After this presentation you'll each head to your assigned test location."
I checked the information folder they gave us. It looked like I was in group A for the test. Peeking over at Iida's it looked like he got group B. It was set up that way so people couldn't get help from their friends or people they knew from middle school. Well, at least that's what the people behind us said.
"In each site there will be three different enemies worth one, two or three points depending on their difficulty. You'll have ten minutes to get as many points as you can. Use your quirks to disable them however you want, but of course attacking other examinees is prohibited,"
"Excuse me!" Iida said standing up and raising a hand. A light clicked on to illuminate him and he took that as a cue to continue. He pointed at a sheet pulled from our information folders and said, "You said there were three types of enemies but on this handout there are clearly four different varieties. Such an obvious error, if it is one, is highly unbecoming of Japan's top hero academy,"
"Also," He declared turning to point at the the mutterer behind us, "You, with the curly hair. You've been muttering this entire time. It's distracting. If this is just some game to you then you should leave immediately,"
… Really…? Okay, so the constant comments from the peanut gallery were a bit annoying, but wasn't calling out someone like that a bigger distraction?
"Yeah, yeah, nice catch there listener. There is a fourth enemy but it's worth a whopping zero points! It's more of an environmental hazard. It'll rampage around at close quarters causing destruction. If you want to aim for the high score you're better off avoiding it for the little guys," Present Mic spoke up.
I studied the handout while Iida apologized. We were going against robots. The one point enemy was roughly humanoid shaped only with what looked like a unicycle scaled to motorcycle level for legs. The two pointer was a quadruped. It's tail was lifted up like a scorpion's though it didn't have any pinchers, while the three pointer looked like a turtle with a pair of missile launchers mounted on its back. The hazard almost looked like a gorilla only with tank treads instead of legs.
Present Mic ended with a quote from Napoleon and a "Plus Ultra." Then we were each loaded onto a series of buses and driven to the testing area.
~~~
Author's Note: Have you ever wondered what an MMO character must look like in character? They just pop up, fully grown with no home, no past and no family. Sure they know stuff like math and such, but most of the time they have no clue about the world around them or its history. Honestly, it's a perfect set up for an SI. Shame I would be so boring as an SI so we get an original character instead!
Saw the title, saw UQ Holder. The first thing I thought was Jack F@cking Rakan. One of the most badass characters to ever come into existence. And his "Rakan for the Hell of it Right Hand Punch" vs Smash.
Queshire
Wants a pink flamingo for their lawn.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
I know right?
I had trouble coming up with the title for this just because of that, but considering what I've decided on for how Gamer works for Astra and you know, the super hero thing that was just the best title I could come up with.
I swear, the title is appropriate. It is not just click bait. not that I'm complaining if it works as click bait per se...
Last edited:
1.2
Queshire
Wants a pink flamingo for their lawn.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
I considered my options on the bus ride over. Except for the hazard all the robots looked to have ranged attacks. The three pointer had missiles, the two had its scorpion tail thing and the one looked like it had freakin' miniguns in its arms if I looked close enough at the picture. If Mage meant magic then I could be looking at a shootout with them, but that didn't seem ideal without a better idea of my own capabilities. Stealth from Thief could also be good, but that was another big if. I needed something reliable, and if anything stank of boring but practical it was Warrior. It also helped that I discovered I owned a sword.
Further exploration revealed that I had a second, specialized Weapon Storage Box which currently contained one short sword. It was an app along with the regular Storage Box running off of the magic cell phone residing in my left hand.
…
…
Look, I don't make the rules, I just live here.
I rammed my mind at the lever in there again and again. I shoved it, shoved it until it snapped over from Mage to Warrior. Oof, wow, man talk about a head rush. I had to blink the stars out of my eyes.
I was so out of it from switching classes that I didn't notice we arrived until people started filing past me. We were dropped off outside a large metal gate. The gate was, naturally, set in an equally large wall. Behind the wall I could see buildings rising up. It looked like someone dug up an entire neighborhood and planted it here.
"Damn, and there's eight of these?" Someone said.
"How much money does U.A. have…?" Another one said.
"Gawk all you want rejects," Someone else barked out. It was the scowl with legs from earlier. His eyes were locked on the city behind the gate as if it personally offended him, "But this is just a stepping stone on my way to U.A. Stay out of my way unless you want to become collateral damage."
Ugh, what a blowhard. Best to just ignore him.
I stepped away and activated my weapon storage box. The hilt pretty much jumped out at me. Frig, I nearly fumbled it. I guess that was the difference between a weapon storage box and a normal one.
"Wow, is that a sword? And you have a mana phone? Aren't those crazy expensive?" A very, very pink girl said popping up.
I nearly fumbled the sword again. Once I made sure I had a firm grip on the sheathed weapon I said, "I guess so?"
So the magic phone in my left hand was called a mana phone? That wasn't the stupidest name I've ever heard, but it wasn't that different from just calling it a magic phone. Hardly the most original name.
The girl was one of the most… quirky? Looking people I've seen outside of those who had a literal animal head. She had pink skin, pink hair, a pair of horns that twisted almost into a question mark shape and you couldn't wait until you saw the white of her eyes since she had black there instead.
"Awesome. I'm Ashido Mina," She said.
"Astra Flare," I replied.
"They said we can use whatever we want right?" I said nodding down towards the sword, "I figure this counts. Though… I'm not really sure how well a sword will work on robots…"
"Ahem," A voice spoke up over a loudspeaker. We turned to see and extremely… erm, blocky looking man with grey…. skin? standing on top of the wall with a microphone, "The test will now begin,"
Wth just that the gate swung open.
The scowl with legs blasted forward with an, "Out of the way rejects!"
Everyone else was caught off guard by how sudden the start was, but his yell jerked them into motion. There was a stampede towards the gate.
"Sorry! Gotta go. Good luck!" Ashido waved and rushed away.
Right, I needed to move too. I waited a bit for the initial rush to thin out before breaking out in a run. I took a right immediately through the gate. There was an alley right along the wall. Enough people got in before me. I could already hear the crack of explosions and fighting in the distance. My best bet to find prey was going where others weren't.
Honestly, I didn't need to bother trying to find prey. It found me first.
A trash can came flying at me, spilling its guts. A one pointer tossed it at me with a swing of its arms. The thing was huge! It was at least six feet tall.
I ducked under the trash can and closed in. It raised an arm to try to strike me. I stepped to the left and stabbed, aiming for the complicated looking machinery along its inner arm.
It worked way too well than it should have. Something screeched and a chunk of paneling tore off. More than that, I felt a pulse of warmth in my chest.
The robot didn't lose the arm, but it was forced to abort its attack. It did more damage to itself by pulling its arm free, but it twisted to line up a strike with its uninjured arm.
I used my shortness to my advantage. I went low under its strike and dragged my blade along its arm. It was poorly made, so, so poorly made. My sword was just a normal, factory made, mass produced sword. It was actually made to be used in combat which gave it the advantage over the sort of stuff they foister on tourists and nerds, but there was nothing special to it.
It made sense though. These things were made for a test for students. They looked more intimidating than they were. It was like cutting through a tin can. Well, a really, really thick tin can, but still so much easier than it should be.
Another pulse of warmth filled me. I got in close enough to stab my blade into its wheel and cut up. One last horizontal strike across that completely ruined the wheel.
I got two more pulses of warmth from that while the one pointer fell over with its one wheel ruined.
One point down. I kept running through the alleyways. I wasn't sure what was up with the warmth. It cooled down a bit as I ran, but there was still this ball of warmth there.
I came across another one pointer in the alleyways. It was facing away from me.
"Hey, tin head!" I shouted.
It was too tight in the alleyway for the one pointer to easily turn around. It tried to just smash through the walls in order to turn, but it was too slow. I lept on top of it and stabbed down at its collar once, twice, before chopping at its long serpentine neck.
It went down and I fell off ass over teakettle.
"Oof," I grumbled, climbing back up to my feet. Two points, and… yeah, I was feeling a lot more confident after figuring out they're more bark than bite.
I followed the alleyway out to the main streets. It looked like a warzone. There were corpses of robos scattered all around and half a dozen examinees firing more.
"Hey, behind you!" I said flipping my sword around and tossing it like a javelin at a two pointer that sneaking up behind a girl with vine like hair currently occupied with using it to tie up a pair of one pointers.
My sword smashed into it. Another pulse of warmth. The pavement cracked underneath my foot and I jumped across the street after it.
Every attack gave me that pulse of warmth. Every pulse made me stronger.
"Thank you," The vine haired girl said.
I flashed her a smile, grabbed my sword, slashed down to make sure the two pointer was out of commission and charged for a three pointer.
This was fun. This was incredibly fun. That… might just be the fire talking. It was a rush. My blood was boiling. I slashed. I cut. I smashed. Once I had enough heat built up I turned myself into a spear. Sword pointing forward, I launched myself into robot after robot.
Somewhere along the line I lost track of where exactly in the faux city I was. I tipped over the lip of a rooftop, waited until I was aimed right before stomping down to launch myself like a bolt from the heavens. A three pointer exploded into machine guts.
"Hey!"
Oh, hey, the scowl with legs was here. He had an arm back, muscles twitching as if he had to force himself to abort his attack on… on the three pointer I just killed? Whoops.
"Whoops, sorry for the kill steal Scowly," I said.
He growled. He looked like he was about to attack me for a moment, which… I mean, could be fun? It was against the rules though, which I think was what decided things for him, "Stay out of my way,"
He turned and slammed his palm into a one pointer that ramped off of an overpass at him. His palm exploded and the one pointer was blown away.
Huh, I guess he had things well in hand here.
Something exploded. I whipped my head around to see a building collapse. The hazard was here. It was shaped just like in the picture, but the picture had nothing on the size. It was freakin' Kaiju sized.
"Yeah…" I said flipping my sword up and down, up and down, "I'm going to fight that,"
~~~
A/N: Action time! Bam! So we get to see Astra's quirk, or at least the quirk of her Warrior class. Hopefully its limitations come across pretty obviously.
At the moment I have some buffer built up. I've got the rest of chapter 1 done and I'm in the middle of chapter 2. I don't really have a plan for when I'm going to post them, but I don't want to blow the entire buffer in one shot on here. This is longest update for chapter 1. The rest of the updates for chapter 1 will be on the shorter side.
Further exploration revealed that I had a second, specialized Weapon Storage Box which currently contained one short sword. It was an app along with the regular Storage Box running off of the magic cell phone residing in my left hand.
…
…
Look, I don't make the rules, I just live here.
I rammed my mind at the lever in there again and again. I shoved it, shoved it until it snapped over from Mage to Warrior. Oof, wow, man talk about a head rush. I had to blink the stars out of my eyes.
I was so out of it from switching classes that I didn't notice we arrived until people started filing past me. We were dropped off outside a large metal gate. The gate was, naturally, set in an equally large wall. Behind the wall I could see buildings rising up. It looked like someone dug up an entire neighborhood and planted it here.
"Damn, and there's eight of these?" Someone said.
"How much money does U.A. have…?" Another one said.
"Gawk all you want rejects," Someone else barked out. It was the scowl with legs from earlier. His eyes were locked on the city behind the gate as if it personally offended him, "But this is just a stepping stone on my way to U.A. Stay out of my way unless you want to become collateral damage."
Ugh, what a blowhard. Best to just ignore him.
I stepped away and activated my weapon storage box. The hilt pretty much jumped out at me. Frig, I nearly fumbled it. I guess that was the difference between a weapon storage box and a normal one.
"Wow, is that a sword? And you have a mana phone? Aren't those crazy expensive?" A very, very pink girl said popping up.
I nearly fumbled the sword again. Once I made sure I had a firm grip on the sheathed weapon I said, "I guess so?"
So the magic phone in my left hand was called a mana phone? That wasn't the stupidest name I've ever heard, but it wasn't that different from just calling it a magic phone. Hardly the most original name.
The girl was one of the most… quirky? Looking people I've seen outside of those who had a literal animal head. She had pink skin, pink hair, a pair of horns that twisted almost into a question mark shape and you couldn't wait until you saw the white of her eyes since she had black there instead.
"Awesome. I'm Ashido Mina," She said.
"Astra Flare," I replied.
"They said we can use whatever we want right?" I said nodding down towards the sword, "I figure this counts. Though… I'm not really sure how well a sword will work on robots…"
"Ahem," A voice spoke up over a loudspeaker. We turned to see and extremely… erm, blocky looking man with grey…. skin? standing on top of the wall with a microphone, "The test will now begin,"
Wth just that the gate swung open.
The scowl with legs blasted forward with an, "Out of the way rejects!"
Everyone else was caught off guard by how sudden the start was, but his yell jerked them into motion. There was a stampede towards the gate.
"Sorry! Gotta go. Good luck!" Ashido waved and rushed away.
Right, I needed to move too. I waited a bit for the initial rush to thin out before breaking out in a run. I took a right immediately through the gate. There was an alley right along the wall. Enough people got in before me. I could already hear the crack of explosions and fighting in the distance. My best bet to find prey was going where others weren't.
Honestly, I didn't need to bother trying to find prey. It found me first.
A trash can came flying at me, spilling its guts. A one pointer tossed it at me with a swing of its arms. The thing was huge! It was at least six feet tall.
I ducked under the trash can and closed in. It raised an arm to try to strike me. I stepped to the left and stabbed, aiming for the complicated looking machinery along its inner arm.
It worked way too well than it should have. Something screeched and a chunk of paneling tore off. More than that, I felt a pulse of warmth in my chest.
The robot didn't lose the arm, but it was forced to abort its attack. It did more damage to itself by pulling its arm free, but it twisted to line up a strike with its uninjured arm.
I used my shortness to my advantage. I went low under its strike and dragged my blade along its arm. It was poorly made, so, so poorly made. My sword was just a normal, factory made, mass produced sword. It was actually made to be used in combat which gave it the advantage over the sort of stuff they foister on tourists and nerds, but there was nothing special to it.
It made sense though. These things were made for a test for students. They looked more intimidating than they were. It was like cutting through a tin can. Well, a really, really thick tin can, but still so much easier than it should be.
Another pulse of warmth filled me. I got in close enough to stab my blade into its wheel and cut up. One last horizontal strike across that completely ruined the wheel.
I got two more pulses of warmth from that while the one pointer fell over with its one wheel ruined.
One point down. I kept running through the alleyways. I wasn't sure what was up with the warmth. It cooled down a bit as I ran, but there was still this ball of warmth there.
I came across another one pointer in the alleyways. It was facing away from me.
"Hey, tin head!" I shouted.
It was too tight in the alleyway for the one pointer to easily turn around. It tried to just smash through the walls in order to turn, but it was too slow. I lept on top of it and stabbed down at its collar once, twice, before chopping at its long serpentine neck.
It went down and I fell off ass over teakettle.
"Oof," I grumbled, climbing back up to my feet. Two points, and… yeah, I was feeling a lot more confident after figuring out they're more bark than bite.
I followed the alleyway out to the main streets. It looked like a warzone. There were corpses of robos scattered all around and half a dozen examinees firing more.
"Hey, behind you!" I said flipping my sword around and tossing it like a javelin at a two pointer that sneaking up behind a girl with vine like hair currently occupied with using it to tie up a pair of one pointers.
My sword smashed into it. Another pulse of warmth. The pavement cracked underneath my foot and I jumped across the street after it.
Every attack gave me that pulse of warmth. Every pulse made me stronger.
"Thank you," The vine haired girl said.
I flashed her a smile, grabbed my sword, slashed down to make sure the two pointer was out of commission and charged for a three pointer.
This was fun. This was incredibly fun. That… might just be the fire talking. It was a rush. My blood was boiling. I slashed. I cut. I smashed. Once I had enough heat built up I turned myself into a spear. Sword pointing forward, I launched myself into robot after robot.
Somewhere along the line I lost track of where exactly in the faux city I was. I tipped over the lip of a rooftop, waited until I was aimed right before stomping down to launch myself like a bolt from the heavens. A three pointer exploded into machine guts.
"Hey!"
Oh, hey, the scowl with legs was here. He had an arm back, muscles twitching as if he had to force himself to abort his attack on… on the three pointer I just killed? Whoops.
"Whoops, sorry for the kill steal Scowly," I said.
He growled. He looked like he was about to attack me for a moment, which… I mean, could be fun? It was against the rules though, which I think was what decided things for him, "Stay out of my way,"
He turned and slammed his palm into a one pointer that ramped off of an overpass at him. His palm exploded and the one pointer was blown away.
Huh, I guess he had things well in hand here.
Something exploded. I whipped my head around to see a building collapse. The hazard was here. It was shaped just like in the picture, but the picture had nothing on the size. It was freakin' Kaiju sized.
"Yeah…" I said flipping my sword up and down, up and down, "I'm going to fight that,"
~~~
A/N: Action time! Bam! So we get to see Astra's quirk, or at least the quirk of her Warrior class. Hopefully its limitations come across pretty obviously.
At the moment I have some buffer built up. I've got the rest of chapter 1 done and I'm in the middle of chapter 2. I don't really have a plan for when I'm going to post them, but I don't want to blow the entire buffer in one shot on here. This is longest update for chapter 1. The rest of the updates for chapter 1 will be on the shorter side.
1.3
Queshire
Wants a pink flamingo for their lawn.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
It wasn't worth any points, but that was okay. I had… um, probably enough points? More to the point! It was a boss monster! How could I ignore that?
The other examinees were running away from it. I caught a glimpse of Ashido surfing away on a trail of slime. Explosions snapped. The scowl wasn't running, but he was focusing on the pointers instead of the big guy. Bo~ring~
I ran towards the hazard. Its head twisted and locked onto me. It reached out a van sized hand to try and grab me.
I leapt. My foot cratered the ground below me. My sword dug into its big, meaty, robo finger. I used that as a handhold while it tried to crush me. I threw my body up over its hand and landed in a stumble on its arm.
The thing was big. It was strong, and I'm pretty sure its armor was actual armor. I don't think I would have been able to pierce it if Warrior wasn't running as hot as it was, but it was still flawed like the lesser bots. If you got within its reach there wasn't a lot it could do. I was like a fly to it. The best it could do was to swat me like a fly, but I wasn't going to stand still enough for that.
I leapt from one arm to the other when it tried to swat me, and ran up its arm. Hop up, hop up, stab sword in for a handhold and pull myself up. The joint where its neck met its body was unarmored by necessity. I dug into there and started smashing anything that looked important.
Its head locked into place first off. Then it lost use of its left arm. I was digging my way down towards its chest when a "ding-dong-ding" rang out and the hazard froze in place.
"Time is up. Everyone stop fighting." The same blocky guy's voice announced over loudspeakers.
I was in a bit of an awkward position since I was up to neck in robot gutty bits. I hauled myself free and leapt down to the ground. Warrior was still buzzing. There was so much warmth that I couldn't keep my fingers still. I didn't want to stop fighting, but, ugh, no point to it if the robots were just going to sit there like broken toys.
The gate was, um… that way. I pointed myself towards it and leapt.
The heat flowing through me started cooling off since I was out of combat. My strength went with it. I stopped cracking the pavement with each leap, and I had to jog the last bit on foot.
"Man, that was crazy. Did you really fight that big one?" Ashido said while we waited for everyone to gather together and load back up on the bus.
"Um… yes?" I offered opening up my weapon storage box. And shove the sword in. There we go, "I didn't get to beat it though. Time ran out,"
Though, that might not matter. Now that the heat was cooled off I could feel something glittering in the back of my mind like a star. I think I leveled up? That was just another thing to add to my list of things to experiment with when I get the chance.
"That's still awesome though. I can't believe they're having the written exam next though. My nerves are still frayed from all of that," She said. I'm not entirely sure how much I believed her claim of frayed nerves considering the smile splayed across her face, but there was a bigger problem then that.
"There's a written exam?" I asked.
The other examinees were running away from it. I caught a glimpse of Ashido surfing away on a trail of slime. Explosions snapped. The scowl wasn't running, but he was focusing on the pointers instead of the big guy. Bo~ring~
I ran towards the hazard. Its head twisted and locked onto me. It reached out a van sized hand to try and grab me.
I leapt. My foot cratered the ground below me. My sword dug into its big, meaty, robo finger. I used that as a handhold while it tried to crush me. I threw my body up over its hand and landed in a stumble on its arm.
The thing was big. It was strong, and I'm pretty sure its armor was actual armor. I don't think I would have been able to pierce it if Warrior wasn't running as hot as it was, but it was still flawed like the lesser bots. If you got within its reach there wasn't a lot it could do. I was like a fly to it. The best it could do was to swat me like a fly, but I wasn't going to stand still enough for that.
I leapt from one arm to the other when it tried to swat me, and ran up its arm. Hop up, hop up, stab sword in for a handhold and pull myself up. The joint where its neck met its body was unarmored by necessity. I dug into there and started smashing anything that looked important.
Its head locked into place first off. Then it lost use of its left arm. I was digging my way down towards its chest when a "ding-dong-ding" rang out and the hazard froze in place.
"Time is up. Everyone stop fighting." The same blocky guy's voice announced over loudspeakers.
I was in a bit of an awkward position since I was up to neck in robot gutty bits. I hauled myself free and leapt down to the ground. Warrior was still buzzing. There was so much warmth that I couldn't keep my fingers still. I didn't want to stop fighting, but, ugh, no point to it if the robots were just going to sit there like broken toys.
The gate was, um… that way. I pointed myself towards it and leapt.
The heat flowing through me started cooling off since I was out of combat. My strength went with it. I stopped cracking the pavement with each leap, and I had to jog the last bit on foot.
"Man, that was crazy. Did you really fight that big one?" Ashido said while we waited for everyone to gather together and load back up on the bus.
"Um… yes?" I offered opening up my weapon storage box. And shove the sword in. There we go, "I didn't get to beat it though. Time ran out,"
Though, that might not matter. Now that the heat was cooled off I could feel something glittering in the back of my mind like a star. I think I leveled up? That was just another thing to add to my list of things to experiment with when I get the chance.
"That's still awesome though. I can't believe they're having the written exam next though. My nerves are still frayed from all of that," She said. I'm not entirely sure how much I believed her claim of frayed nerves considering the smile splayed across her face, but there was a bigger problem then that.
"There's a written exam?" I asked.