The King of Heroes: Null/Virtue

Exchanging Blows

The Titanium Lord breathed deeply, letting out a loud "Ahhh..." as he exhaled. His entire body shimmered. His skin wasn't literally metal, but it was like every bit of his flesh was interwoven with titanium fibers. "Mountain air! Nothing quite like it in Metara! I should come up here-" His blonde head jerked to the side, a ring filling the air as the plasma exploded against his temple. "Not even bothering with pleasantries?" He smirked at Izuku, his mechanical looking eyes boring right into the Onyx's soul. "I respect it, kid!"

Izuku glared at him with all the hatred he had, gripping his dagger in his right hand, having fired off the plasma from his left.

"His eyes are his Quirk, so what's he gonna do with them? Fire laser beams?" He tensed up, ready to jump into the fight.

"Wait!" Kaina suddenly jumped between the two. "Wait wait, just wait!" She held her hands up before the Titanium Lord, kneeling before him. "Lord Stellian! The NULL Lord is just a child! You cannot-"

"I can do what I please," He interrupted.

"Please! I beg of you! Kill me! Take me prisoner! Whatever you want! Just leave him out of this!" Kaina bowed down, pressing her forehead to the snowy ground.

"Are you sure you're an Onyx? I don't know many who'd beg like that. You must seriously care about this kid." Stellian calmly strolled over to her. "It's touching, but I'm not here to take anyone prisoner."

Realizing there was no reasoning with the brute, Kaina shot straight up, her fist slamming into the underside of the Titanium Lord's jaw. His head barely moved. She shot off several blasts of energy from her other hand, Archery Magic. It too pinged off of his body like a bullet hitting solid steel.

"Cute," He said, casually swiping his arm through the air, backhanding her 20-feet into the air. Izuku watched in horror, her body limp as it hit the ground. He wasn't sure if she was alive. The Titanium Lord's most lackadaisical swing was still like getting hit by a mountain.

Izuku wanted to throw up. So many times he'd seen his fellow experiments treated no differently, beneath someone else, killed off for convenience alone. He felt something rising in his chest, but it wasn't bile.

"Well, now that she's-"

His eyes turned back to Izuku just in time to see a violent cascade of black and yellow light envelope his sight, tearing across his chest and slicing through his collarbone. The beam continued on, flying through the mountain range until it struck the black rock, instantly melting it into a magma.

The beam cut off just as Izuku clamped his mouth shut, steaming pouring out from his jaw. "I will kill you."

Goto Imasuji's eyes grew wide with excitement. He didn't seem all that concerned by the wound on his right shoulder. "Big words from a little man! Then again-"

"No more talking." Izuku wanted to let forth that blast again, but his chest was red-hot. Letting out another blast of that power would prove too much for an adolescent Onyx.

For a moment, everything was silent, the two Lords staring each other down. One gaze filled with rage, the other with a cruel giddiness.

Everything rushed back to Izuku, the sensation of a battle, one where you knew you could be killed at any second. There hadn't been a single time he'd felt like this in this world yet, so it brought out a side Izuku almost forgot about, Subject #9.

The ground shattered into dust as Goto flung himself at Izuku, his fist rearing back. Even with his collarbone sliced open, he was throwing that arm with more force than a tank shell being fired from a barrel.

But he was still a man constrained by gravity. As soon as he moved, his feet leaving the ground, Izuku could predict his trajectory, shooting straight up into the air with his wings. The small burst of speed carried him up and over the Titanium Lord, and he snapped his wings shut, allowing him to fall directly behind Goto, dragging his dagger along the behemoth's back as he went.