"This way, come on!"
Kendo noticed that it was one of the 1-A boys, Sato, eyes wide and unfocused. He nodded and followed without arguing.
By the time they reached a rocky outcrop clear of the gas, she had four people with her — Setsuna, Sato, a coughing Kaminari who looked one shock away from passing out and Kodai, who'd apparently sprinted the entire way from the opposite end of the trail.
"Okay." Kendo forced her voice level, forced her hands to stop shaking. Someone had to be the calm one. It might as well be her. "Everyone breathing okay? Anyone hurt?"
"I'm… fine," Kodai managed, between gasps. "Scared out of my mind, but fine."
"What was that," Sato said. "That gas, was that someone's quirk?"
"Has to be." Kendo scanned the tree line below them, smoke still curling thick where they'd come from, distant shouting still echoing through the trees. "I doubt this is part of the exercise. This has to be real."
Nobody argued with her.
Kaminari's radio-issued comm crackled weakly at his hip, mostly static, one broken fragment of Vlad King's voice cutting through, "—regroup at the— all students—" before it dissolved again.
"We need to get back toward the cabins," Kendo said. "Teachers will be trying to consolidate everyone there."
"What if it's not safe there either?" Kodai asked.
"Then we find out and adjust." Kendo was already moving, scanning the terrain, picking the route with the most cover. "Standing still isn't safer. Come on."
They moved in a loose formation down the slope, Kendo taking point without really deciding to, Setsuna covering the rear with her quirk half melted into the shadows in case anything came at them from behind. The gas thinned the further they went, but the woods felt wrong in a way that had nothing to do with fog… too quiet in some directions, too loud in others, distant crashes and shouted names carrying strangely through the trees.
Unfortunately, they found a villain before they found the cabins.
He came out of the treeline almost casually, a hulking figure with skin like cracked stone, grinning wide enough to show too many teeth.
Kendo had half a second to shove Kaminari behind her before a fist the size of a boulder came down where he'd been standing.
"Move!" she shouted, and didn't wait to see if they listened, already ducking under the follow-
up swing and driving her enlarged fist straight into the villain's ribs with everything she had.
It barely staggered him. He was fast for something so large, backhanding her aside with enough force to send her skidding across the dirt, breath knocked clean out of her lungs.
"Kendo!" Setsuna's voice, panicked.
"I'm fine!" She wasn't, entirely, ribs screaming as she scrambled back up, but fine enough. "Get the others out of here, I'll hold him!"
"Are you insane—"
"Go!"
She didn't have a plan beyond buying time, but buying time was something, and the villain's attention had locked onto her the second she'd hit him, which meant it wasn't locked onto Kaminari or Sato anymore. She enlarged both hands fully, planted her feet, and met his next swing head on, the impact rattling up both arms hard enough to numb them.
'He's stronger than me. Not faster, though.'
She ducked the second swing, got in close, drove a solid hit into his side that finally made him grunt, stagger half a step. Not enough. Not nearly enough, but enough to matter.
"Not bad," the villain said, voice low and pleased in a way that made her skin crawl. "Been a while since one of you brats actually fought back."
"Yeah, well." She circled, kept her guard up, kept her breathing steady even though every instinct was screaming at her to run. "Tends to happen when you only fight school children."
Behind her, she heard Setsuna's voice further off now, good, they'd actually run, and something in her chest loosened slightly even as the villain's grin widened at the opening she'd just given him by not watching her own back.
He didn't get the chance to capitalize on it. A voice cut through the trees… sharp, female, carrying easily.
"Perimeter's compromised on this side! Fall back, all students, fall back toward the eastern ridge!"
Mandalay. Close, closer than Kendo expected, and a beat later the woman herself burst through the underbrush, expression grim, already moving to put herself between Kendo and the villain.
"Go," Mandalay said, not looking away from him. "Now, Itsuka, I've got this."
Kendo hesitated exactly one second, torn between the instinct to keep fighting and the very clear order to leave, then turned and ran, following the direction Setsuna had gone, lungs burning, ribs aching with every step.
She found the others huddled behind a fallen log a hundred yards on, Kodai practically vibrating with relief when she spotted her.
"You're insane," Kodai said, grabbing her arm like she needed to physically confirm Kendo was real. "You're actually insane."
"I'm fine." Kendo bent over, hands on her knees, breathing hard. "Everyone else okay?"
Nods all around, shaky but intact. Kaminari looked pale but steady. Sato had a scrape down one arm but nothing worse.
Through the trees, the sounds of fighting continued, further off now, punctuated by the occasional flash of light or distant crash. Somewhere, Kendo thought she heard Vlad King's voice again, and further still, something that might have been Present Mic, though it was hard to tell over the blood still pounding in her own ears.
Her hand found the tracker in her pocket again, instinct rather than thought, and this time she didn't let go of it, curling her fingers tight around the small cold shape like an anchor.
'Come on, she' thought, scanning the dark tree line, searching for a shape that wasn't there. 'Where are you?!'
Beside her, Setsuna touched her shoulder gently. "We should keep moving. Eastern ridge, she said."
Kendo shook her head with a smile, forced herself upright despite her ribs' loud objections, "I'm… I'm going to look for more students, you continue alone."
Before anyone could protest, she was already moving.