Narration POV
Nezu and Midnight got out of the platform, part of the floor opened up underneath to swallow the metal contraption. The students meanwhile made their way to one of the gates that went to the outside, three green lights lit above it.
The atmosphere in the stadium became even more electric if that was possible. Thousands of spectators filled the stands, their voices creating a thunderous roar that seemed to shake the very foundation of the arena.
Among the crowd, cameras from every major news network in Japan captured every angle.
Arthur's grip on Excalibur tightened, as his enhanced vision allowed him to look at each spectator, one by one.
One of the lights went out.
The crowd's roar intensified, and Arthur could see students from the other courses start to prepare themselves. The one thing that weirded him was the general studies, student Shinso, who Arthur still believed to be the secret son of Aizawa, who was asking questions to other students.
The next light went out.
"This is it," Kirishima muttered beside him, his skin beginning to harden slightly in preparation. "Time to show them how manly Class 1A really is!"
"That just sounds wrong," Tsuyu added.
Then the last light went out.
At that moment both Nezu and Midnight yelled at the top of their lungs into the microphone, their voices carrying across the entire stadium and broadcasting to millions of viewers across Japan.
"START!!!"
The students rushed into the corridor like a dam had burst, the narrow passageway immediately becoming a chaotic bottleneck of bodies, quirks, and desperation.
"Ok here's the play by play," Present Mic's voice boomed across the stadium, his enthusiasm infectious. "Are you ready to do the commentary, Mummy man?" Present Mic said as he turned to Aizawa, who was seated beside him in the commentary booth.
"You're the one who forced me to do this," Aizawa answered, his voice carrying its usual tired tone.
"Let's get started right away, Mummy man. What should we pay attention to in the early stages?"
"This part right now," Aizawa answered simply, his bandaged form leaning forward slightly as he observed the developing situation.
In the corridor below, a complete fiasco was unfolding exactly as anyone with half a brain could have expected.
The students were piling over each other, the narrow space forcing them into close contact whether they wanted it or not. This close together most didn't want to risk using their quirks, especially since aside from the hero courses the rest hadn't practiced much with their quirks.
"It's too narrow!" someone from Class 1C shouted, his voice strained as he tried to push through the mass of bodies.
"Hey, hey! Watch where you're putting your hands!" a girl from support class yelled indignantly.
"OUCH! Someone just stepped on my foot!"
"Be careful, you fuck!" came an angry voice that sounded suspiciously like it might belong to a certain explosive blonde.ed.
But there was one student who still wasn't running into the corridor with the rest. Instead, he waited outside the gate, sword at his waist, and blonde ruffled hair.
Arthur stood perfectly still, his enhanced senses taking in every detail of the chaos before him. He could hear individual heartbeats accelerating with stress, could see the micro-expressions of frustration and determination on dozens of faces, he honestly wanted to make them stop so they would stop trampling over each other but he stayed as silent as he was still.
A lot of the crowd wondered why he wasn't moving with the rest.
"Why isn't the vigilante moving?"
"Is he scared?"
"Maybe he's planning something?"
But they couldn't question that for long as, inside the corridor, the temperature suddenly dropped several degrees and ice began spreading across the floor and walls.
Students who had been pushing and shoving suddenly found themselves trapped, their feet frozen to the ground, their arms pinned against icy walls. Shouts of surprise and frustration echoed through the narrow space as dozens of competitors found themselves immobilized.
"What the hell-"
"I can't move!"
"My feet are stuck!"
At the front of the mass, the first person to emerge from the corridor was Todoroki, his heterochromatic eyes cold and focused as ice continued to burst from his feet, creating an impromptu skating surface that propelled him forward with impressive speed.
His strategy was immediately clear to anyone watching, create an obstacle for everyone else while giving himself a significant head start.
However, not everyone was caught by Todoroki's ice attack. Most of Class 1A, having experienced his quirk during their battle trial and general training, had anticipated something like this and managed to avoid the worst of it.
A few students from other classes had also been quick enough or lucky enough to escape the freezing trap.
These survivors continued to rush across the now fully open track that circled the stadium's outer perimeter.
Finally, Arthur moved from his spot and began walking towards the corridor at an almost leisurely pace. Even though he was now dead last among all the competitors, he did something which immediately drew the attention of every camera, every spectator, and every pro hero in attendance.
He slowly drew Excalibur from Avalon, the sacred blade glowed with that sacred radiance. The crowd fell into a hushed silence, they were enthralled by the blade in Arthur's hand.
As he finally reached the entrance to the ice-filled corridor, Arthur raised the sword high above his head. For a moment, he paused, and those with the sharpest eyes could see him mouth what looked like an apology.
Then he slammed Excalibur down, driving its point into the ground with tremendous force.
BOOM
The impact sent a shockwave through the ice. Every crystal, every frozen surface, every icy barrier that Todoroki had created shattered instantly into thousands of harmless fragments that caught the light like falling snow.
All the trapped students were suddenly free, some falling forward as they hadn't expected to be released so abruptly from their frozen prisons. The sudden liberation caught many off guard, and there was a moment of confusion before they realized what had happened and began running once more.
"INCREDIBLE!" Present Mic's voice boomed across the stadium, his usual enthusiasm cranked up to eleven. "Arthur Pendragon has just freed every single trapped student with one strike! That's what I call sportsmanship!"
"Hmm," Aizawa added, seemingly thinking of something.
It didn't matter much for the immediate race standings though, as most of Class 1A was already making significant progress around the track. At the front, Todoroki maintained his lead, his ice-skating technique allowing him to move with remarkable speed across the terrain.
More surprisingly, he was being followed closely by Mineta, who had somehow managed to use his sticky balls to create a form of locomotion that was keeping him competitive with much more obviously powerful quirks.
"I've outwitted you, Todoroki!" Mineta yelled with uncharacteristic confidence, his usual perverted demeanor replaced by somehow still perverted determination. "How pathetic! Take this! My special attack!" He continued as he grabbed one of the purple spheres that served as his hair, whipping his arm back dramatically.
"Gra-"
His victory cry was cut off abruptly as something massive erupted from the ground directly in front of him.
A towering metallic green robot with a single, glowing red eye materialized from what had appeared to be solid earth. Hero course students knew what it was a one pointer from the practical exam.
The robot's fist swung into the tiny student.
In the narrow corridor Arthur still hadn't finished crossing, he instantly disappeared from where he had been standing.
A sonic boom resounded out, the shockwave so powerful it would have deafened anyone who was still in that enclosed space. The air itself seemed to crack as Arthur moved at speeds that no human eye could track.
The crowd looked to the massive screens positioned around the stadium, and a blur of gold suddenly appeared behind Mineta, scooping up the small student who had been sent spiraling. At that same instant, the robot which had punched him was cut cleanly in half, its form toppling as its systems sparked and died.
Mineta looked around bewildered, and in a bit of pain.
"Uh, uh, what happened?" he stammered, clearly not having processed the speed at which events had just unfolded.
"Are you okay?" Arthur asked, his voice gentle, even though he was talking to Mineta of all people.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Mineta replied.
"That's good." Arthur said simply, setting the smaller student down carefully on a patch of ground that was once more being covered by ice created by Todoroki's continued advance.
Arthur POV
I knew it. I just knew that Nezu would have added something like this to the obstacle course.
I love the guy, but seriously, his idea of fun and everyone else's were clearly very different things. Would it have been too much for it to be a normal obstacle race.
I looked down towards Mineta once more, who was already beginning to run.
At that moment, a deep rumbling sound reached my ears, much deeper and more ominous than the single robot that had just attacked Mineta.
I looked towards the course ahead, and my enhanced vision immediately picked up what was causing the disturbance.
Multiple zero-point robots were rising from concealed positions all along the track. One, two, and three-point robots were also beginning to appear around this section of the field, their red eyes glowing as their targeting systems came online.
"Targets acquired," their robotic voices rang out.
I could hear Present Mic's voice booming across the stadium as he provided commentary for the millions watching.
"Obstacles have shown up suddenly! Starting with the first barrier! Robo Inferno!"
Even from here, I could hear the nervous mutterings of my classmates as they encountered the robotic opposition.
"Aren't those the zero-point villains from the entrance exam?!" Kaminari yelled, and I could hear the note of panic in his voice as he took a step back from the mechanical giants.
"Seriously, the hero course had to fight those?" came a voice from one of the general studies students.
"This is what they meant by obstacles?" another student asked, the question carrying a note of disbelief.
"There are way too many!" someone else complained.
Todoroki, however, had a completely different reaction. He didn't stop running toward the zero-point robots, and with my enhanced hearing, I caught him muttering under his breath as he approached the mechanical barrier.
"So these are what they used in the general entrance exam?" His voice carried a note of almost dismissiveness, which given how strong he was, I could somewhat understand.
I watched as Todoroki placed his right hand on the ground, ice beginning to crawl up his arm in preparation for a major attack.
"If they went through all this trouble, I wish they would've prepared something better," he said, and I could hear, an almost frustrated quality to his voice.
"Since my stupid old man is watching."
The last words were barely a whisper, but my enhanced hearing caught them clearly. Was it normal to call your father stupid?
Todoroki whipped his hand forward, and ice followed the motion, bursting from the ground. The frozen water spread across the ground in a massive wave, covering the first four zero-point robots that blocked the track. Within seconds, they were encased in ice thick enough to immobilize their massive forms completely.
Then he began running underneath them, using his own attack as cover as he continued his advance.
"He stopped them," I heard someone from the general class yell, their voice filled with amazement at the display of power.
But that wasn't the only thing I heard. My sensitive ears caught the sounds of stressed metal, creaks, cracks, groans, as the robots' internal systems struggled against the sudden temperature change. The ice was so thick and the cold so intense that it was actually affecting the robots' structural integrity.
Then the mechanical giants began falling forward, their frozen joints unable to support their massive weight.
"Good gosh, there's gotta be a better way to do this."
Mana burst through my legs, and I reappeared in front of the falling robots in an instant. Excalibur flashed in a series of movements too fast for normal eyes to follow, and just like I had done during the practical exam, I reduced the mechanical giants to harmless dust and fragments.
The crowd erupted in cheers and amazement, but I didn't much care for that, I looked around the students just in case to see if any of them were injured, thankfully none were.
What they did was run. Seeing that the path was clear, they ran and ran and ran.
I could see more robots gathering further along the course, and as I landed back on the ground, Bakugo flew past me with explosions propelling him from his palms. His technique was crude but effective, and he was making good time despite the obstacles.
More and more students rushed past me. Most stopping soon as they met the next robots.
I watched them go one by one, feeling that familiar urge to help, to protect, to ensure that everyone made it through safely.
"Restrain yourself, Arthur, they are training to be heroes," I said to myself, the words barely audible even to my own enhanced hearing. "Just stay back to help if necessary. Let them deal with the robots on their own."
A/N: Yeah Arthur, isn't taking this very seriously especially since it's just a qualifier, so it doesn't very much matter what position he gets as long as he qualifies, what's important to him is that the students are safe, so while he won't be coddling as he'll let them deal on the robots on their own, if he sees that someone can't, he may help them. Arthur is still a goody two shoes at heart.
I'll probably upload the top 5 chapter, later today, in six hours most likely. And the obstacle race will most likely be two more chapters, since the robots are the main thing that scares Arthur, you'll see what he does for the next two sections lol.
I thank you all for the continued support, seriously I can't thank you all enough.
See you all tomorrow. Thx for reading.
Author out.