Chapter 32: The Chasm and the Minefield
For a long, breathless moment after the titan of steel had fallen, the world seemed to hold its collective breath. The roar of the crowd, the frantic commentary from Present Mic, the shocked gasps of the students still trapped at the starting line—it all faded into a dull, distant hum in Rock Lee's ears. The only thing he could feel was the deep, resonant ache in his very bones, a grim souvenir from his brief, violent dance with the Fifth Gate. He looked down at his trembling hand, clenched it into a fist to still its shaking, and took a single, deep, centering breath.
I can continue.
He did not wait for the applause to die down. He did not wait for his opponents to recover from their shock. With a burst of renewed energy, he shot forward, his green uniform a blur against the grey wreckage of his own making. The race was on, and he had just vaulted himself from the back of the pack into the heart of the competition.
The rest of the students, galvanized by his incredible feat, began to surge forward as well, finding new paths through the debris of the fallen robots. The race had been reset, but a clear leading group had now broken away from the rest. It was a four-way contest at the pinnacle: The Gifted Prince of Ice, Shoto Todoroki. The Raging Dynamite of Explosions, Katsuki Bakugo. The Unlikely Strategist who had cleverly used the chaos to his advantage, Izuku Midoriya. And the Green Comet of Pure Will, Rock Lee.
They left the field of mechanical carnage behind them, their feet pounding against the dirt track as they charged towards the second obstacle. It loomed before them, a testament to U.A.'s extravagant and dangerous design: "The Fall."
It was a chasm of terrifying proportions, a man-made canyon so deep that its bottom was lost in shadow. Dozens of precarious, round rock platforms were scattered throughout the abyss, connected by a haphazard web of thick, swaying tightropes. It was a pure test of balance, mobility, and courage.
Todoroki, who was still in the lead, didn't even break his stride. He approached the edge of the chasm and, with a casual and almost contemptuous flick of his wrist, created a bridge of solid, shimmering ice that spanned the entire gap. He ran across it with an elegant, effortless grace, not just overcoming the obstacle, but invalidating it completely with his overwhelming power.
Bakugo arrived a moment later, snarling at the sight of Todoroki's retreating back. He didn't have the patience for ropes or bridges. He leaped into the chasm, his hands crackling. BOOM! BOOM! He propelled himself through the air in a series of violent, angry explosions, a human missile flying over the abyss. It was brute force against elegant power, a direct and fiery contrast.
For anyone else, the chasm would have been a daunting challenge. For Rock Lee, it was a playground.
He reached the edge and, without a moment's hesitation, leaped. He landed with perfect balance on the first tightrope, his arms outstretched. He did not walk or shuffle across. He ran. The rope barely seemed to sway beneath his feet. He was a force of nature in his own right, a creature of pure, kinetic perfection. He sprinted along one rope, then leaped to another, using a precarious rock platform as a springboard to launch himself into a series of acrobatic flips before landing on the next rope without a sound. From the stadium monitors, it looked like a beautiful, impossible dance, a breathtaking display of physical prowess that seemed just as miraculous as Todoroki's ice or Bakugo's flight.
He was crossing the chasm at nearly the same speed as the two prodigies, using the intended, difficult path and making it look effortless. He could hear Present Mic's commentary screaming with excitement, but he tuned it out, his focus entirely on the movements of his own body, and the two figures he was rapidly catching up to.
He landed on the other side just as Midoriya, who had cleverly used salvaged robot plating and his wits to navigate the ropes, arrived as well. The four of them were now in a dead heat, a frantic sprint towards the third and final gateway.
It was a vast, open field, deceptively peaceful. The ground was soft and tilled, and a faint, sweet smell hung in the air. This was the final obstacle: The Minefield.
"AND NOW, THE FINAL BARRIER!" Present Mic's voice roared. "IT'S A MINEFIELD, FOLKS! DIG YOUR FEET IN, AND YOU'LL BE GOING UP! THESE MINES ARE POWERFUL, BUT THEY'RE DESIGNED TO BE NON-LETHAL, SO DON'T YOU WORRY!"
The nature of the race changed instantly. Raw speed was now a liability. One careless step, and a contestant's hard-earned lead would be blasted away in a cloud of pink smoke.
Todoroki slowed, his expression cautious, his eyes scanning the ground. He attempted to freeze a path forward, but the ground was too soft, and the mines, he quickly realized, were sensitive to extreme temperature changes as well as pressure. His advance became a slow, careful crawl.
Bakugo, predictably, had no patience for caution. After taking a few careful steps, he let out a frustrated growl. "SCREW THIS!" He began firing small, controlled explosions at the ground in front of him, clearing a path with concussive force while using larger blasts to propel himself forward in short, explosive hops. It was loud, chaotic, and incredibly dangerous.
Lee, however, found himself in his element once more. The weeks of training with Sora, of learning to sense and react to the unpredictable—it had all led to this. He took a deep breath, opening the First Gate just enough to sharpen his senses to a razor's edge. He began to run. It was not a blind sprint, but an intricate, high-speed dance. His eyes flickered back and forth, but he was relying on more than sight. He could feel it. He could sense the slight depressions in the earth, the subtle shifts in pressure that betrayed the locations of the hidden mines. He weaved and dodged, his path a zigzag of pure instinct and perception, his feet touching the ground for only a fraction of a second at a time.
He was pulling ahead. He passed Bakugo, who roared in fury and launched a blast in his direction, which Lee dodged with ease. He was gaining on Todoroki, who was forced to watch as the green blur danced through the field of death he was so carefully navigating. Victory was within his grasp.
Then, behind him, the world exploded.
It was not the pop of a single mine. It was a colossal BOOM that was ten times louder than anything before it, a massive, concussive blast that sent a shockwave across the entire field. Lee was nearly thrown off his feet by the force of it. He skidded to a halt and spun around, his eyes wide, to witness the most insane and brilliant strategy of the day.
Far behind him, Izuku Midoriya, who had been hopelessly out of the running, had dug up a cluster of mines. Now, using a large sheet of metal from one of the defeated robots as a shield and a sled, he had detonated them all at once. The resulting explosion had launched him into the air like a rocket.
He soared over the minefield, a screaming, determined figure silhouetted against the sky, his face a mask of pure, desperate genius. He flew over Bakugo. He flew over Todoroki. He flew over Lee himself.
He landed with a clumsy, rolling crash just ahead of them, stumbling but managing to stay on his feet. In a single, desperate gamble, he had used the obstacle itself as a launching pad and thrown himself into first place.
For a moment, Bakugo and Todoroki were frozen, their faces a perfect picture of utter, furious disbelief.
Lee, however, felt a wide, genuine grin spread across his face. The sheer, unexpected audacity of the move, the incredible willpower it must have taken to even conceive of it—he felt no anger. He felt a profound sense of respect. He saw a kindred spirit in Midoriya, someone who, when faced with an impossible obstacle, would use every ounce of his being to find a way not around it, but through it.
The brief moment of shock passed. The race had been completely reset. The four of them—the flying strategist, the raging dynamite, the prince of ice, and the green comet—were now neck-and-neck. The final tunnel leading back into the cheering stadium was just ahead.