First Milestone Completed. Bonus Chapter As Promised.
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"Oi! General Course."
Bakugo uttered, voice low, expression brimming with menace.
"What's that punch supposed to mean?"
Yuta frowned. 'Guess I shouldn't be surprised he noticed.'
Bakugo crouched into a stance, both hands positioned like tiger claws.
"You aren't underestimating me? Are you?"
'Kaachan noticed it too.' Midoriya thought.
"Hey, what's Bakugo talking about?"
"Yeah. Am I missing something?" Kirishima scratched his head.
Midoriya opened his mouth when,
"His striking power has gone down."
Everyone's attention turned to Todoroki.
"Hmm? What are you talking about Todoroki?"
Todoroki didn't elaborate.
'It's odd. His stronger attacks against never hit directly, but they were enough to cause significant damage to whatever he struck. That blow should have sent Bakugo flying further than that, but not only did it not, Bakugo seems fine.'
In the arena, Yuta dropped his arm. "Why would you think that?"
Bakugo's brows knit even further.
BOOM!
"Fine Then."
He shot forward without warning, smoke erupting behind him. Yuta fell into a stance as Bakugo arrived. Then,
BOOM!
"Up?'
A second explosion erupted from his hands, propelling him upward. Right over Yuta.
'Take This!'
His palms glowed before releasing an accumulated blast of explosive proportions. It hit where Yuta had been standing a minute ago, shattering the earth beneath it.
'Tch'
Bakugo's gaze followed Yuta who had dodged the to the left with a flip. Another explosion shot him towards Yuta as he thrust his arm forward again, raining attacks from above.
Yuta had barely stabilized himself when he was forced to dodge again. The blast hit the floor, sending dust and debris in all directions.
"Where do you think you're going?"
Bakugo didn't let up.
He fired again, sending another charged blast towards where Yuta stood. The explosion covered the left side of the arena with smoke, obscuring Bakugo's vision of his target.
'Come on.'
He thought with narrowed eyes. 'Use it. Use that warping speed of yours.'
Yuta shot out of the smoke a second later, he rolled a bit before his hand dug into the earth to negate the effect of the shockwave.
'Now.'
His eyes shot up as he ran towards Bakugo's landing point.
Despite not having much chakra, and not being able to use much at once, Yuta still had his quirk.
In normal use, he could make his speed and strength far greater than what was humanly possible by removing the limiters on the human body, but the backlash and toll from doing so was extremely dangerous.
There wasn't enough chakra for body flickers or hyper fast reflexes, but 15% chakra flow was enough to reinforce his body to make sure he wouldn't get hurt for defying human limits.
However,
BOOM.
Seeing Yuta dash over, Bakugo cancelled his descent, shooting up yet again into the air. Consecutive change of directions left Bakugo flying directly over Yuta from a different angle.
The explosion hammered the concrete, sending a plume of smoke and debris skyward. The shockwave rippled outward, cracking the arena floor in a spiderweb pattern.
"WOW! BAKUGO MANEUVERS THROUGH THE AIR LIKE A FIGHTER JET AND DROPS AN AIRSTRIKE! WHAT A DEVASTATING DISPLAY OF AERIAL DOMINANCE!"
The left side of the arena was covered in smoke.
"Hey, what happened?"
"I can't see a thing!"
The crowd leaned forward, straining to see through the haze.
Bakugo's grin widened. 'That should do it ..'
A figure burst out from the cloud before he could finish. The blond's face darkened. 'Dammit.'
Yuta rolled low, hand digging into the cracked concrete to kill his momentum. 'That was close.' His eyes snapped upward.
'However, he's not coming down.'
The Sharingan's dynamic vision could see Bakugo's darkened features in the distance.
High-altitude bombing, rapid maneuvering, unpredictable angles.
It was exactly how Bakugo would respond after watching all of Yuta's matches—especially the one against Todoroki.
So he removed the ground from the equation entirely. 'Aerial attacks meant to wear me down with explosions I can't close distance on.'
It was smart. Frustrating, but smart.
BOOM!
Bakugo flew over.
BOOM!
Yuta rushed to the sides at high speed, eyes narrowing. 'If that's how you want to play it, fine.'
His legs coiled. Then he ran at a speed that would leave Usain bolt in the dust.
"There's nowhere to run!"
Bakugo blasted after him, palms erupting as he propelled himself forward. He led the target, hands coming together,
BOOM!
The explosion detonated where Yuta would have been.
'I can see it!'
But Yuta's eyes saw it coming. Sharingan tracked the muscle tension. The arm angle. The ignition point.
He shifted left.
The blast missed by meters.
'What the—?!'
Bakugo snarled, adjusting midair. Another explosion. Another miss.
The shockwave blew Yuta away, forcing him to regain balance. 'He's fast.' This was his assessment of Bakugo after the first few attacks.
Faster, more agile, capable of changing momentum at will, Bakugo was on a whole other level compared to others.
Mineta and Shiozaki were too slow and stationary to avoid his first strike. Todoroki's ice could achieve some degree of mobility as he knew how to dodge, defend and attack, but his own movement speed was too simple.
Bakugo didn't have that weakness.
He could attack, reposition, and attack again in a single breath.
'Normally,' Yuta thought, 'this is where I'd be cornered.'
However, compared to Todoroki, Bakugo had one disadvantage.
'His quirk is too predictable.'
BOOM!
Yuta legs blurred as he shot to the side, avoiding another blast. Against Todoroki, he couldn't dodge the ice waves—they covered too much ground, appeared from too many points simultaneously.
Fighting as he did without instantaneous movement, was impossible.
But Bakugo's explosions all come from the same source. Two hands. Two points. No matter how fast he moved, no matter what angle he attacked from, every single blast originated from his palms.
And that made all the difference.
'As long as I can read the ignition…'
BOOM!
Yuta veered right just before the blast detonated where his head would have been.
Another followed immediately.
BOOM!
He slid under the shockwave, boots skidding across fractured concrete, lungs burning.
'…I don't need body flicker.'
The arena had quieted to nothing but the sounds of explosions.
Bakugo fired again, sweat flying from his brow as recoil rattled his arms.
"STOP RUNNING, YOU COWARD!"
His hands swelled with accumulated nitroglycerin.
A move Yuta noticed with a single look. His left leg slammed into the earth, channeling energy as he pushed off it towards the left sharply.
Two seconds later, an explosion detonated that same point.
"Try to keep up!" Yuta yelled back, his voice cutting through the lingering smoke.
Bakugo's eye twitched.
"YOU—!"
Present Mic's voice thundered over the chaos.
"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THE MATCH HAS TAKEN AN UNEXPECTED TURN INTO A CHASE. WITH YUTA AKUTAMI PULLING OFF SEVERAL DAREDEVIL DODGES WHILE BAKUGO CARPET BOMBS THE ARENA FROM ABOVE."
Bakugo chased after him, rage bleeding into every movement. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Three consecutive explosions hammered the arena floor.
Yuta weaved between them, each dodge precise and efficient.
"UNBELIEVABLE! YUTA IS DANCING ON THE EDGE OF THE BLAST RADIUS, NOT WASTING A SINGLE STEP! THIS IS A MASTERCLASS IN EVASIVE MOVEMENT!"
"AKUTAMI IS OUTSPEEDING BAKUGO'S MID-RANGE BLASTS—BUT WITH THE ARENA GETTING FLATTENED, HOW LONG CAN HE KEEP THIS UP?!"
'Dammit!'
Finally, Bakugo braked mid-air, blasting backward with a concentrated discharge to halt his own momentum. He landed with a heavy thump nearly thirty meters away from Yuta, sinking slightly into the fractured concrete.
Sweat slid down his forehead and ran into his eyes, forcing him to squint.
Steam rose heavily from his palm's skin.
'What's going on?'
His palms stung from overuse. His arms trembled from recoil.
'He isn't even using that damn warp ability, yet he's dodging everything… is he reading my movements?' Bakugo clenched his fist.
Across the arena, Yuta slowed as well. His chest rose and fell sharply, sweat dripping from his chin. His shoulders slumped slightly, an image of fatigue he hadn't shown since the Cavalry Battle.
Running at that speed, constantly adjusting direction, timing each breath, and maintaining the microscopic muscle control needed for optimal efficiency was demanding, even with the reinforcement of his quirk.
Both boys stared across the battlefield, chests heaving.
The ground between them looked like a war zone.
Smoke curled from craters the size of cars. Shattered tiles and pulverized concrete covered the floor.
"BOTH FIGHTERS HAVE STOPPED! IS THIS A MOMENTARY PAUSE, OR ARE WE ABOUT TO SEE THE NEXT PHASE OF THIS INCREDIBLE MATCH?!"
The crowd buzzed with anticipation.
In the Hero Course section, silence.
"Yuta's not attacking," Midoriya murmured.
"Neither is Bakugo," Todoroki added.
"They're both breathing hard," Kirishima observed. "But Bakugo looks way more frustrated."
"Of course he is," Jiro said. "He's been chasing Yuta around for three minutes and hasn't landed a single clean hit."
Momo frowned. "But Yuta hasn't landed one either. Not since that opening strike."
"So it's a stalemate?" Kaminari asked.
"No." Todoroki's voice was certain. "One of them is about to escalate."
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