Playing the Hero

Chapter 15

Hello again! I'm back! And I've decided to switch to doing simple animations for each chapter instead of full fledged drawings, keeps my motivation up and chapters coming out quicker! Hope you enjoy the last of the sports festival :)

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Vallerie's next battle was with the third son of Endeavor, a match Vallerie was sure would be longer than her others. The first day at U.A, Vallerie made sure to look at the power levels of everyone in that class. Based on quirk energy alone, which was really all that mattered when it came to defeating Vallerie, only four people had gotten her attention. Todoroki was one of them. She wasn't that worried about his ice, if caught in it she could just shift out. She was worried about his fire. If Todoroki decided to use it, a large enough fire could produce enough energy that she had trouble managing her own, which would make making weapons, shields, and shifting away harder than usual. So the fire was definitely something to watch out for.

She walked the corridors, taking her time getting to the arena.

She doubted he would use fire so soon after his last match. Given his family history and his apparent relationship with his quirk, that one moment of using fire probably took a toll on him mentally. It was unlikely he would be ready to use it again so soon.

So fire was ruled out, for now, and ice was her main problem. Again, it wouldn't be hard to get out of it, but if she got stuck enough times the energy could get to her and mess her up. So what was her plan? Well, Vallerie had always been a person of habit. She would use some of the same techniques she used during the Hero versus Villain exercise, combined with a bit of fancy flying. The plan was vague, but Vallerie didn't have more time to think about it as they walked into the arena and waited for their match to start.

Present Mic's voice boomed in the stadium, and Vallerie disappeared from view. They went upwards, making sure they stayed within boundaries. Todoroki looked around calmly, he had probably expected an attack like this. What he wasn't expecting was for Vallerie to hurtle down from the sky in a dive, claws out and ready to send Todoroki to dream land. A shield of ice blocked her from achieving her goal, and Vallerie pushed off it with a grunt, disappearing again. Todoroki's head was now shielded in ice, making it hard to do what she wanted considering her hands had to be physical for this to work. It allowed her more control, and she didn't want to kill her classmate if unnecessary. They shot back down and slammed her body down into the barrier. Her arm and side had been charged with energy, and that was enough to bounce her away and break the ice. They attacked Todoroki as soon as the defence shattered, bloody lines blooming across his face. The move she wanted to use also required stillness, and Todoroki was still moving. In hindsight, the match probably would have been over a lot quicker if Vallerie had just chosen some other method of victory, but she was stubborn. Once she decided she wanted to do something, it was very hard for her to change her own mind.

The two Heroes in training went at each other relentlessly. Vallerie kept her mind set to aerial attacks, and Todoroki never seemed to run out of ice. The half and half boy had multiple new claw marks decorating his neck and arms, but he was still conscious. Vallerie turned in the air, a perfect dive. As they shattered ice again, they realised that vines would have to come into play now.

They increased the speed of their attacks, coming from all sides seemingly at once. Todoroki had no time to breathe as he struggled to keep up. At the height of the distraction, all the ice around him shattered and Vallerie sent vines shooting up and wrapping around his ankles. At least it felt like his ankles, it was hard to tell when they couldn't see. They slammed him into the ground and then threw him up into the air. Todoroki reacted by shooting daggers of ice her way, but they were easy to dodge and his movement in the air was limited. Vallerie took the opportunity to grab his entire face with her hand, "You know how this goes! Sweet dreams." and Todoroki was out. Vallerie did twist and turns around his body as he fell, taking the time to enjoy the descent and her victory. They caught him by the collar of his gym uniform just before he hit the ground. Midnight had already declared Vallerie the winner, and that was supposed to be her que to walk off, but she wanted to do just one more thing.