The buzzer for Battle Center C hadn't even finished ringing before I was moving.While the other kids in my zone were shouting battle cries or revving up their flashy Quirks, I remained silent. I didn't need a war cry; I needed to save energy.
In a different zone, Ochaco was probably already nauseous from overusing her power, and I didn't want to be the twin who came home with a lower score."Right," I muttered, hands shoved deep into my hoodie pockets. "Let's make this quick."I stepped off the starting line, but my feet didn't really hit the pavement. I reduced my own gravity until I was effectively weightless, using the friction of my toes against the ground to 'skate' forward. I looked like a glitch in a video game, sliding across the asphalt at forty miles per hour without moving my legs.A Two-Pointer robot, a clunky thing with long arms, lurched out of an alleyway."Target identified!" it screeched.I didn't stop. I didn't even take my hands out of my pockets. As I 'skated' past it, I flicked my Cursed Energy outward, expanding a Lapse field of about three meters.The robot's sensors must have gone haywire. One second it had traction; the next, its several-ton frame was drifting upward as if the Earth had simply let go of it. Because its wheels were still spinning at high speeds, the lack of friction caused the machine to jerk violently in mid-air, flipping upside down.I didn't look back. I just retracted the field once I was ten meters away.CRASH.The Two-Pointer slammed back down onto its head, the weight of its own chassis crushing its delicate sensor array.[2 Points]"Too easy," I whispered.Center C was a maze of narrow streets, which was perfect for me. I wasn't an "attacker" in the traditional sense. I was a disaster zone. I moved through the city like a phantom, leaving a trail of drifting, confused robots in my wake. Whenever a group of them clustered together, I would jump, negate my gravity to reach the third-story of a building, and then manipulate the gravity of the loose rubble.I'd make a pile of bricks weightless, guide them over the robots' heads, and then—snap—I'd cut the technique.The sound of several hundred pounds of bricks regaining their mass and accelerating at 9.8 m/s was incredibly satisfying.
THOOM.
[11 Points]By the halfway mark, I had accumulated about 45 points. I was breathing a bit harder, a cold sweat breaking out on my forehead. My Cursed Energy felt like a depleting battery. Maintaining a constant "Lapse" field while moving at high speeds was taxing. It wasn't like a Quirk that was part of my biology; it was a technique I had to constantly "calculate" and fuel with my own negative energy.'I need to be more efficient,' I thought, leaning against a lamppost to catch my breath. 'If I can just figure out the Reversal... I could just flatten everything in a five-meter radius. No more skating, no more brick-dropping. Just... click, and they're scrap.
'I closed my eyes, trying to find that "Positive Energy" again. I tried to take the cold, dark feeling in my gut and multiply it.Negative times negative...My head throbbed. A sharp, stinging pain shot through my temples."Still nothing," I groaned, wiping a stray drop of blood from my nose. "My brain is officially allergic to math."Suddenly, the ground began to vibrate. It wasn't the rhythmic thumping of the smaller robots. It was a rhythmic, soul-shaking tremor.
From the center of the mock city, the Zero-Pointer emerged. It was a mountain of olive-drab metal, its head taller than the office buildings surrounding it.The other examinees in Center C—the ones who had been bragging earlier—were now screaming and running back toward the entrance."R-Run! It's huge!" a kid with a lizard quirk yelled, sprinting past me.
I stood my ground, watching the massive machine. It wasn't targeting people; it was just a programmed obstacle. But in its path, a girl was pinned under a fallen billboard. She wasn't an examinee I knew, just another face in the crowd, but she was terrified.The Zero-Pointer's massive tread was moving toward her.'Well,'
I thought, my humor going dry. 'I wanted a challenge. I guess a giant skyscraper-sized tank counts.'I didn't have Midoriya's super-strength. I didn't have Bakugo's explosions. All I had was the ability to tell the Earth to stop pulling.I started to run toward the giant—not away.