"It is an investment," All For One corrected.
Tomura would soon learn all of this and would have to either adapt his strategy, or suffer another humiliating defeat in a short period of time. It would increase his rage, his hate, and make him reach his full potential.
He gestured to the screen.
"Let the boy watch his 'invincible' monsters struggle. It is the only way he will learn anything."
__
In Hosu, a torrent of flames shot back towards Endeavor, engulfing the flame Hero with his own Jet Burn.
The explosion that followed resounded through the sector.
"Endeavor!" Tensei yelled.
"I'm fine." Endeavor replied virtually unharmed from the cloud of fire all around him. "Be careful. This one's quirk is absorption and release."
The flames of the creature ran out. Turning his head, Endeavor's face darkened. "Watch out!"
A gust of wind blew past Ingenium. Tilting, his eyes caught a serrated bone blade slicing towards his head.
Thud!
The earth froze as a leg stomped on the ground. The next second, it grew rapidly, shooting forward like a missile at its target.
The Nomu's blade was inches away from a headshot when it was encased with ice, stopping it's movements just a bit short of Ingenium's skull.
Ingenium leaped backwards. His eyes followed the wave of ice to its point of origin. In the distance, Todoroki exhaled frosty air, ice partially clung to one half of his body while he held the body of Mirage on the other.
"Nice move Todoroki."
Iida uttered beside him while carrying a pro hero on his back.
"Thanks." Todoroki responded. "But I don't think it'll hold."
He had barely voiced his worries when cracks emerged on the ice.
Endeavor frowned. 'What the hell is he doing?'
"What are you waiting for Ingenium? Clear the three-block radius,"
"No!" Todoroki shouted from behind the ice barrier. "Don't underestimate these things! They're like the creature that fought All Might at the USJ! They don't feel pain, and they have multiple quirks!"
Endeavors frown deepened.
"So that's how it is?"
The cracking ice finally shattered. The crimson Nomu broke out, roaring to the sky, just to be hit by a blast of flames.
"Enough Shoto." Endeavor uttered as the Crimson Nomu turned its attention back to him.
"I don't care what they did at your school. None of you are strong enough to get involved in what comes next. You'll only get in the way."
His gaze shifted between it and the obsidian creature in the distance. Its body was trembling rapidly as the muscles enlarged to larger proportions.
'So it's activating another quirk. Still ..'
"But .."
"Go!" Endeavor bellowed. "These things are here for me. As long as I'm the target, civilians and injured heroes are just obstacles. Get them clear, and I'll handle this without holding back."
The obsidian Nomu leaped upward, shattering the concrete beneath its feet. The Crimson Nomu dashed forward, swinging its bone blades.
Endeavor in the middle, released a burst of flames shooting in all directions.
The explosion that followed was deafening.
Dust and debris flew in all directions, causing Todoroki to shield his eyes.
"Let's go." Ingenium lifted two heroes over his shoulders.
"Watchbird! Earthshaker! Priority evacuation—all injured heroes and civilians within three blocks! We need to clear the wounded before anyone else gets hurt."
"Tenya! Todoroki! With me! We're on containment duty!"
He grabbed the two injured heroes in a single motion, running at rapid speed. Watchbird took to the air, carrying another pro. Earthshaker used his quirk to create a stone platform, loading unconscious heroes onto it before pulling them away like a makeshift sled.
Tenya followed after his brother while Todoroki took one look at the smoke cloud, gritted his teeth and moved three heroes with his ice.
Behind him, the dust blew apart showing Endeavor in a blaze of fire while clamping both the bone blade and the Nomu's punch on his sides with both hands.
The ground underneath had shattered as he stood on one knee with creaking joints.
'Dammit!' His face turned dark and eased a second later as the heroes retreated at his commands
'Finally.'
Flames erupted from his palms, shooting both backwards by several feet.
Pushed back, the Obsidian Nomu roared. Its Muscle Augmentation reached a grotesque peak as it threw a punch with enough force to level an
apartment complex.
Endeavor didn't block it this time. He leaned back, the fist whistling past his face with enough wind pressure to cut his cheek. In the same motion, ducked beneath the Obsidian's guard, and drove his fist directly into its solar plexus.
"Flashfire Fist!"
BOOM!
The creature was heat with a jet stream of fire and kinetic force. It shot out like a cannonball, smashing into the earth several times before crashing into a building on the other end of the street.
SCREEEEEEE!
It happened then.
The Crimson released an earsplitting scream.
"Too slow."
Fire jets erupted from his feet, propelling the pro into the air.
The sonic attack missed its target, slamming directly into the obsidian unit on the other end of the street.
"That's it." Endeavor yelled as flames compressed at his fingertips. The Crimson Nomu looked up. "Focus on me."
With a suddenness that defied its bulk, it lunged. Its feet shattered the pavement as it propelled itself forward.
Unfortunately, it was too late.
"Hell Spider!" Dozens of thin, searing lines of fire erupted from his fingers towards the advancing Nomu.
The crimson Nomu barely had time to react as dozens of crisscrossing lines sliced through it's body.
The fire lines sliced past him, destroying the earth beneath as well. BOOM!
The earth shook as the concrete was utterly destroyed. Smoke and fire rose beneath him as Endeavor let out an exhale.
Smoke drifted low across the asphalt. Even with the obstruction, he could still make out the lines Hell Spider had carved, etched into the pavement like molten scars.
Soon, the dust settled over the scorched pavement, revealing a gruesome sight.
Down below, the Crimson Nomu lay in pieces. It's body and head torn apart so badly that not even its regeneration could save it.
Endeavor descended slowly, his boots touching the cracked earth.
'So this is what All Might struggled against?' Endeavor wondered, his eyes lingering on the steaming remains of the crimson creature.
High physical specs. Multiple quirks. Durability beyond reason
'But that's all there is.'
His eyes flicked over the battlefield.
There were no tactics. No feints. No awareness beyond what was directly in front of them.
They attacked like animals. Powerful ones, but animals all the same.
'Perhaps that one had even stronger quirks than these,' he reasoned. Or maybe it had a mind.
That would explain it.
Shoto's description of the USJ beast's battle with All Might had put the creature on equal grounds physically which to him ... Was absurd in all dimensions.
Now supposedly fighting creatures of similar might, he had only moderately exerted himself in this entire fight.
Clearly, something wasn't adding up. However, it didn't matter.
If this was the best the League could muster to counter him, they had miscalculated.
He turned his gaze toward the destroyed building down the street, watching as the Obsidian Nomu shoved aside a fallen support beam, its black hide glowing.
'One left here, and...' Endeavor's eyes scanned the vicinity, his brow furrowing as he did a mental head count. 'Where's the third?'
A distant, guttural roar echoed from two blocks away, followed by the sound of shattering glass and the panicked screams of civilians. Endeavor's head snapped toward the sound.
On a rooftop in the distance, he saw a lanky silhouette leaping toward the very area where Ingenium and the interns were heading with the evacuees.
"Dammit! They haven't cleared the area yet?"
He had assumed Ingenium's initial strike had neutralized the third beast or at least kept it grounded. He hadn't accounted for its mobility .... or its lack of interest in him.
Endeavor crouched, flames erupting from his heels to propel himself toward the rescue site, but he didn't get the chance to take off.
Behind him, the Obsidian Nomu had fully emerged from the wreckage, its jaw unhinging to an impossible degree.
Then, it released everything.
It fired a concentrated, fire-charged sonic scream, a devastating fusion of the Crimson's frequency and the heat it had stolen from Endeavor's own Jet Burn. The attack tore through the street like a horizontal cyclone, vaporizing the asphalt in its path.
'What the ..'
Endeavor turned around.
Seeing the attack, with no time to dodge, He thrust both hands forward, compressing the flames into a dense, wall-like shield.
"Flashfire: Ignited Curtain!"
The two forces slammed into each other midway. The collision resulted in a blinding, white-hot explosion that sent a mushroom cloud of fire and dust billowing into the sky,
___
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