Of steel and plasma

Last Ditch Effort

"Ready for round two?"
"You're still going? In your state? What are you made of?"
"A lot of pain and determination. Nothing more, nothing less. But I wanted to know, how come that guy seems unaffected by my attacks? I can crush a car easily, but that dude didn't even budge. How?"
"Ha! This is one of his quirks! Shock Absorbtion! He can tank All Might level attacks! Punching him is useless!"
Izuku shivered. 'one of his quirks' ? What? It couldn't be them, right? They couldn't possibly have found his trace after all those years. There was just no way.

No . Even if they did, now wasn't the time to weaken. For everyone's sake, he had to stand and fight. With that resolve in mind, he repeated his question.
"So, are you ready for round two?"
"Nomu, finish him off."

21%

Once again, both fighters jumped toward each other, ready to end this fight. However, this time, Izuku didn't go for a fistfight. Instead, he jumped above the Nomu's attack, straightened his remaining fingers in the shape of a blade, and slashed at the beasts arm. Of course, this was a gamble. Since it seemed that pounding the monster was ineffective, he decided to try cutting him down.

He only got the oppoortunity to change his fighting style mid-fight because the villains had the imprudence to give him a rest, and not finish him off while he was down. They were gonna pay for their arrogance. But only if his new battle plan proved effective.

Thankfully, his improvised blade penetrated the Nomu's flesh quite easily. So the thing didn't possess any defenses against slashing, and most likely, piercing attacks. That beast sure was designed to beat All Might. Maybe he stood a chance after all?

As he landed behind his opponent's back, his inflicted yet another wound on the hulking beast's side. If he continued like this, he definitely could win.

A game of cat and mouse started. For what seemed like an eternity, but was just a few minutes in reality, the Nomu was trying to catch the teen, while the latter evaded with all his might and whittled down the body of his opponent little by little, slash by slash. The further he progressed, the slower the beast's movement got. He was winning this!

13%

At some point, the creature spun around, its arms extanded. Izuku had no choice but to create some distance.
'Trying to catch your breath? I wont let you!'
The instant the Nomu's motion stopped, he pounced right back into the fray, blade at the ready, and engaged the beast yet again.

Dodge, cut, dodge, cut, dodge, cut. The fight went on for a while.

8%

Something was wrong. Something was definitely wrong. The Nomu wasn't slowing down anymore. In fact, it was getting faster. And it didn't feel like it was due to adrenaline or panick, seeing how calm it stayed. 'What could it be?'

Izuku got his answer pretty fast. Multiple locations on the Nomu, where he had cut its skin, were now intact, as if he never damaged it.
'What!? Did I miss? Where did I get it wrong? I was sure I cut him! What the hell? Did he somehow heal in the meantime? A regeneration quirk?
Now, he was panicking for real, if it was like this, he would never get to take that thing down!

3%

His time was up. With how much battery he had left, it was a matter of seconds before 'Overdrive' would get shut down. That was it's main weakness. Izuku didn't possess an unlimited supply of energy, he worked on batteries after all. And while Overdrive boosted his abilities to their very limit by surcharging his circuits, its energy consumption was equally increased.

3...

2...

1...

1%

Fuuuh...

As Izuku's body powered down, his movement came to a sudden halt. Now, he was left standing in the middle of the plaza. A wry,broken smile appeared on his damaged lips. How arrogant could he become? Of course he never stood a chance. All along, the Nomu was playing with him. He was but a mere toy in the eyes of those villains. And here he thought he could do it!

Soon enough, the beast's left hand grabbed his torso. It was so big that the thing simply had to wrap it's fingers around him. Izuku didn't resist. Not like he could anyway. He had used up his strenght, now, he was just a doll in their hands.

Just as the teen had given up on fighting, the villain's leader decided that pushing the blade further was an entertaining idea.
"Hahaha! That was quite the show! You truly surprised me! As a thank you, you'll be the first to die! You won't have to witness your friends's deaths. But it won't be painless though..."
And just like that, he placed all five fingers of his hand on Izuku's remaining one. The instant he did that, the incredibly tough metal withered away, as if death itself had decided to take it with her.

It took Izuku two seconds to acknowledge the pain.

"Guuhaaah!!"

He had forgotten. How could he? Years of illusionnary safety, of calm. But today, fate had decided to give him a remainder, to make him remember what it felt like to suffer for real. That was something he had desesperately tried to escape for years, but today it caught up to him. Up until that instant, he had believed that he was safe. He wasn't. The burning sensation was horrific, even to someone like him.

Of course, there was the small matter of his right arm that had been pulverized minutes ago. But for that part, he had seen the damage coming, and thus, was able to shut down his member before the sensation could get to him.

But this time, he hadn't expected to suffer so easily. This time, he was taken by surprise.

As the cracks were spreading on his arm, he feared that the destruction would reach his head, the rest of his body. If it did, even he wouldn't be able to recover from that. However, as the damage was nearing his shoulder.

"Tear off his arm."

Skrrriiinnch!

"Gaaahaaa!"

This time, the pain came instantly.

"Here's the thing. I noticed that you don't have blood. So, if we rip you apart, you won't die. So-"
The villain didn't get to finish his sentence. Black mist envelopped him and transported him away an instant before a wave of ice covered his location.
"Be careful, Shigaraki. There seems to be other students ready to fight."
"Seriously? What are they? Summons? They don't feel fear?"

Then, Izuku's still working ear picked up some noise. Two... Three... No, four people on top of the ice launcher were rushing to his direction. He could guess who was the owner of those explosions. Then, the one running behind Bakugo was... Kirishima. The greenette only caught a glimpse of him, but there was only one student in his class with this much red on his costume. Finally, the two people coming from the stairs were... Thirteen and... Uraraka?
'What is she doing here? Her quirk isn't suitable for fighting! She needs to fall back! All of them! Why are they...'

'Ah. They're not gonna give up, aren't they? In that case... I at least need to... But how? I don't have the power to do it anymore. Overdrive is shut down.'

Desperation washed over him. As long as he was in the Nomu's hand, any struggle was pointless. If he wanted to be saved, he was gonna need to work for it. But he couldn't. He didn't have the energy to anymore.

Wait. There was a way. One that didn't require the use of Overdrive. If he did it like this, it could work. But it was a gamble. A huge one at that. If he failed, everything was over. But if he succeeded... Hope was permitted.

'This a last ditch effort. Make it work!'

He lifted his damaged right arm, and...

He released everything. The pain, the energy, the last percent of power left in him gushed out of his injury, all into the Nomu's member, forcing him to release the teen. Izuku fell powerlessly, before a pair of arms caught him and somehow made his weight vanish. As he was dragged, he issued his last warning.