Solstice and Eclipse: Part II

Chapter IV: Off to the Races

He had taken four pills beforehand, and someone from the support class had designed special noise canceling earplugs for him to wear, but the cheers that erupted from the gathered crowd still hammered against his eardrums as he and the rest of Class 1A stepped out onto the field. His knees shook with every step he took, and the familiar feint glow had appeared around his sweating hands. Part of him expected Yaoyorozu's hand to rest itself on his arm, offering a reassuring presence as she had in the past. Part of him hoped for it. But she, like everyone else, was focused on the upcoming tasks at hand. Deep breaths. Long, deep breaths.

The first years gathered at the center of the field where Katsuki Bakugou once again painted a target on Class 1A's backs, and with the briefest of explanations they were off to the races. A four-kilometer obstacle course along the perimeter of the stadium. At the sound of the buzzer the students were cut loose, racing towards the large double doors that lead to a corridor, and further down, the start line. They clambered over one another, eager to separate themselves from the herd and show their skills against the obstacles ahead, and in their haste, they disregarded what was truly the first hurdle.

"What should we be paying attention to in the early stages of the race?" Present Mic asked Eraser Head from the commentator's booth.

"The doorway."

Unlike the rest of the competitors, (L/N) had foreseen this problem. Just like the stampede in the hallway when the media had bypassed campus security just weeks ago. He had no desire to be caught in another situation of that sort, so he stood to the side and allowed the others to flood the doorway, pressed up against one another like sardines. It didn't matter that he could only fly a bit faster than he could run. Not when the other contestants were gridlocked as they were. A few deep breaths saw his body surrounded in the familiar glow, and with no real haste, he simply flew over the heads of the clambering mass beneath him.

So distracted fighting each other to get through the doorway, no one paid him much mind. They also didn't see the warning signs of the attack to come. The drop in temperature and the frost that began to form on their legs. Before they knew what happened they found themselves frozen to the ground. Todoroki had taken an early lead, but his attack wasn't perfect. A sizeable handful of the more adept students avoided his attack, most of them from Class 1A. They became the frontrunners of the race, and (L/N) was amongst them.

A few hundred meters down the track was where they encountered the second of the trials. Mineta's high pitched scream pierced (L/N)'s ears as he was batted to the side by a metal hand. The race seemed to come to a screeching halt as the first years gazed up at the behemoths in disbelief. Even Todoroki took pause. (L/N) showed no such hesitation. One of the advantages of being blind, it made him that much harder to intimidate. The shadows they cast spoke to the machines' colossal size, but to him they were nothing more than giant hunks of metal. Earlier that year he'd leveled a building just as large with no effort. These 'zero pointers' as he heard some of the students refer to them, were no different.

"Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, ladies and gentlemen, that's (L/N) from Class 1A rocketing through those giants like a bullet through tissue paper!"

The crowd cheered as what appeared to be a comet sped straight through the chests of two of the mechs. Scrap metal and other debris rained from above as the machines teetered and threatened to fall, but another barrage of ice kept them in place as Todoroki regained his bearings and continued onwards.

"Dude, he stopped the robots."

"Look, between their legs. We can get through!"

"Careful, now." Todoroki called back. "I froze them while they were off their balance. On purpose."