MHA Fantasy Quest for the SOL

Part 30: The 8th Holder

Everyone stared at the bounty hunters in horror. "Not this, not this, not this," Denki was thinking to himself. Or was he saying it? "Shut up," Kyoka confirmed that.

"Lovely to see you again, Prince," Tomura said smugly, "I'm so tickled it was this easy to find you, that I'm in a generous mood. If you come with us willingly, we'll only kill half your little friends, and we'll leave the rest wounded."

"That's generous?" Camie said in a small voice.

"It's generous not to kill all of you," Tomura said, "and just for surety, we brought some new friends. Himiko, and Jin, say hello."

"Salutations," said one hooded figure. It was a woman's voice.

"I don't know why I'm here, but it's nice to meet you... I hate all of you," said the other, a man's voice.

"What was that?" Mina said.

"Oh, Jin has a little curse problem, that's all," Tomura said dismissively, "He can't make up his mind very well, usually, but he has decided to kill all of you if necessary. Pick your poison, Prince Shoto."

A very apt way to put it. Shoto looked at all of them. If Tomura kept his word, the scoundrels might go easier on them. If he was lying, then it would be foolhardy to give in. The party looked at him and shook their heads. "We can take 'em," Ei said, without as much confidence as he intended.

The mages and the wizard would be one thing, Shoto thought. They could probably handle that, but that monster Nomu was stronger than all of them, and they couldn't even hurt it before--not by much, and its arm appeared fine now. No signs of being burned either.

Bakugo raised his hands. "Like he--- we're going to surrender to you jackasses! Prepare to die, brigands!" He charged in before anyone could stop him. "I guess we're fighting," Shoto said, in exasperation.

Momo held up her Staff of Creati. "To the death, then," she said.

"But let's try to avoid dying," Denki said.

"Deku," Shoto turned to him, "We'll distract them, but you should follow the map for the final mile. You can't help fight anyway. Maybe if you find the 8th, you can bring help."

"What?" Deku said.

"Yes, go," Ochako agreed, "I'll cover you so they won't notice."

"Brother, I got this," Camie flexed her fingers and blew a cloud of smoke to shield all of them.

Ochako grabbed Deku's hand and started leading him away, using a shield spell.

The others all rushed to help Bakugo not get himself killed. He'd launched himself right at the Smoke Wizard, thinking he was the biggest threat. The Nomu monster struck out at him, and Bakugo maneuvered away just in time. Then he blasted it, and it at least flew several feet, though it didn't seem very hurt. Bakugo lost no time in blowing up the wizard too. The wizard phased out of his range and over towards the others, sucking Camie and Mina into his smoke. He then spat them out right in front of the Nomu, who was getting up. 

"Nomu! Killed them all except that one!" Tomura pointed at Shoto. Nomu made a terrible growling noise and raised one mutated fist.

 "Ah!" Camie screamed, because no illusion was going to stop this. 

"No you don't!" Mina spit acid at its hands. It didn't seem to stop it at all, but she grabbed Camie and flew up out of the way, and it created a trunk sized dent in the ground where they had been.

 "I almost just died!" Camie was freaking out more than usual. 

"Hey, no time for that!" Mina gave her a jerk. "Focus, or we will die for sure! Cover me!"