Chapter 72: 3 Noteworthy Candidates

With the test's first challenge ongoing, the gathered villains begin their all out battle royale, and while many are in the running, some will shine brighter then others.

The once-lifeless town was alive once more, but not in the way anyone could have foreseen. Instead of civilians and regular folk going about their day, conversing, laughing, or just handling their work and tasks, it was a battleground now. The test hadn't started too long ago, and already several fights had broken out. Some were one-on-one, others were ambushes, and others were pandemonium as entire groups threw themselves at others.

Mummy turned his attention away from the fighting and instead viewed things via their many monitors. Pyre, on the other hand, remained on the edge, the soft fall breeze soothing if a little chilly. His gaze had a soft green glow, his powers gently swirling about, under the surface, but ready and happy to be used. But for now, Pyre remained passive, his gaze turning to the small river where he could see many villains using its water for offense and defense against attacks and each other.

As one went down, he mentally noted who was responsible for the take-down.

"That's another knock-out," Mummy called out, his back to the action and his attention remaining on it. "You think they'll last till the end?"

"There's the chance, as the ideal thing would be to take someone out, and hide, playing things defensively," Pyre replied, Koharu agreeing, as while some things had been destroyed, there were still plenty of spots one could hide and wait things out. No sense for the predator to be out and about after it’s secured and consumed its prey.

"Plenty of these early 'winners' probably think finishing early would get them extra favour with us. We only care if you're still standing when it's all said and done. You can take out 10 people, but if you fall, you fall, end of story." Mummy started, watching as one such poor bastard had it happen to him, taking out 3 people before he himself was knocked out.

"Yes, but it seems like many are throwing everything they have early into this, so it's not ideal to show your hand so early," Pyre stated, his gaze moving from the river to the city interior, where gusts of wind, dust, and flames flew back and forth against an array of different abilities.

“Let’s hope their egos and excitement don't do them in," Mummy replied, but paused when something caught his attention. “Oh, that seems like upset.”

Line Break

In the field, the Volcano Thieves remained surrounded on all sides, but they were still standing; attackers would take a moment to pause as they had to accept that their second wave had failed. “Dammit, these guys…”

“I wasn’t expecting them to be this difficult to handle.” Another muttered, a heteromorph with an appearance akin to a spider, including the 3 red eyes and an additional 4 legs..

"Hey, that better not be a dig at us, you assholes!"  Gust Boy yelled at them.

"He's got a big mouth, but he can back it up. This is troubling, " a smartly dressed villain mused, flipping a coin in his hand.

“It’ll just make the take-down all the sweeter, you ready?” Another smirked, his body covered in a hard shell-like substance, his right hand being an oversized pincer.

“Set it up.” At the call, the crab pointed his pincer towards the Volcano Thieves, who prepared for another attack, possibly a water-based one. Instead, what came out was a series of ear-drumming bursts of sound, all caused by the villain opening and snapping his pincers closed in rapid succession. Each created a sound akin to an explosion, each adding an layer to the concussive noises.

“What the-!” One of the others yelled as they held their ears, some falling to their knees in pain.

“My ears!”

“What the heck is this?!” Dusty Ash yelled. She and the rest of the Volcano Thieves were not exempt. Being the target of the attack, their defences faltered. Volcano was hardly keeping up as his teammates went down. Looking around, he saw many others suffering as well, but the cause of it didn't move. He smirked as his teammate, the spider woman, seemed unaffected by the near-ear bleeding blasts.

"Nice try, but" Volcano pulled back his right hand and punched it into the road as hard as possible. “Volcannon!” A large concentrated force of magma was forced into the ground, shooting out around them in seemingly random locations, but it wasn't.

One such geyser hit the Spider-Woman right in the leg, throwing her off balance as she painfully landed on the ground. Other blasts and explosions of magma kept most villains from even trying to engage.

“That won’t be enough!” One yelled, latching onto a building when an extending arm swung towards them, only to yelp and pull themselves out of the way as a geyser's flow was redirected towards them.

This wasn't Volcano's work, but Gust Boy, who forced himself to stand and throw his quirk into the mix, even as his head was splitting open from the continuous noise. “Then let’s fan the flames, suckers!”

“Hot, hot!”

“Dammit, watch where you’re blowing all that!” That and other voices yelled as the villains ran around, others too slow if they could move at all, but they didn’t suffer any injuries, not when they weren’t threats. Through the chaos, Dusty picked herself up and, refusing to be outdone by her teammates, went on the move, attacking anyone she could with kicks and swings from her club, which swept people off their feet or sent them onto their asses when a well-placed smack to the gut or chest.

Some ribs might have been cracked, and some ankles broken, but it was well within the rules, and she was more than happy to exploit that. All while she let dust off her body, which, when picked up by Gust's winds, sent it all over the place.

"Shit, she's on the move," Someone yelled.

“Find her.”

“Good luck,” Dusty smiled as she took a break. Knowing this would hurt her later, she let loose a massive dust cloud from her body, one that covered nearly half the street in a thick layer of the stuff, making it difficult to breathe and near impossible to see.

By the time the stuff cleared, she was sitting on the crab villain's knocked-out body while Gust dusted off his hands, Volcano off to the side.

“Woo, done and dusted.” Gust Boy chuckled as they had each managed to take at least one person out, though with how chaotic things got, he couldn’t be sure who had the most.

“They really came at us hard.” Dusty Ash noticed, as it was either because they thought them weak or strong, that they could all set aside their differences and try to get one on them.

"Doesn't matter; we're still in this." Volcano grunted. It wasn't like the fighting had stopped; they could still hear it echoing through the town, the ground shaking from time to time from the more powerful attacks and impacts.

Dusty got out of her impromptu seat and approached her boss. "What's the play then? We find others to take out, or we dig in?"

Line Break

In a particular alley, the smell of oil, old garbage, and weeds growing through the cracks in the paving was slowly being replaced with the thick scent of iron. The reason was that the ambush against Shearwolf continued, and despite the numbers and the cramped space, she was not only still standing, but many of her opponents were down for the count, only a few awake.

"Dammit, what will it take to put this damned sheep down?" One yelled as they rushed her, their fingers shifting into long, wicked, shape-blades.

Shearwolf tilted her head, as if listening to a song only she could hear. Evading the attack, she beamed a smile, wide and happy as she drove her fist into the villain's gut so hard he nearly blacked out as he was sent tumbling back, smacking into the wall next to others she had already dealt with. Her back turned to one side again, attacks came in, made up of all manner of things, but it didn't matter if it was rocks, metal, pure energy, or elemental, her fleece expanded, creating a woolly barrier which blocked it all.

One tried to take advantage of the fact that she wasn't moving, suspecting she couldn't move while defending herself. Thus, the woman's arm shimmered as it shifted into molten metal. She threw a punch right for the bovine heteromorph's face, only for Shearwolf to catch the blow, steam hissing from her hands, which clamped down on the attackers, preventing them from escaping.

“Wha-how aren’t you burning?” The second woman asked as Shearwolf turned her full attention towards her and snapped the woman's wrist without hesitation. As she howled in pain, Shear explained.

"Easy. My wool is grown with lots of love and care. Everything I wear is made from it, including my gloves." With that said, she performed a textbook high kick. Her hooved foot connected with the wounded woman's chin, knocking her out and sending her flying back, right into another whose body was crackling with electricity.

The result was a painful electrocution which woke the unconscious woman up, only for a wool forged hammer to slam into her and the electricity user, handling that situation.

"Oh, this is so fun! Can you all keep up? I've just come up with the perfect sweater design, and I think it'll look perfect on you all." She seemed to treat this as a play date, all while her horns continued to glow. Pale veins of light running along the curved ivory.

"Damn you, I'll make you into a lamb-chop dinner!" Someone yelled as they tried to strike her with a mallet.

Again, she caught it, but the weapon seemed to pass through her hands, turning into smoke before it resolidified and hit home, landing the first hit. “Yes, take that you-!”

Whatever gloat he had would go unsaid as he was knocked out, not just knocked out, but he was kicked in the face so hard that several teeth went flying, and it wouldn't be a shock if he came to with a concussion.

Immediately, the remainder of the attackers could feel the mood shift. Sherawolf had been dangerous before, capable and quick on her hooves, but she had been happy, smiling, and eager to enjoy herself.

Now she looked like she wanted to murder someone, and they weren’t so sure the rules would stop her.

Shear felt her anger bubbling, so much so that each exhale sent hot breath out of her nose, making the sheep/ram hybrid heteromorph look closer to a pissed off bull. “You…I was trying to be nice, I wanted to be nice, and then you had to go and say it, and worse of all,” She pointed to her chest, which now had a hole in it, which showed off her pink kitty bra. “Your stupid hit tore my shirt!”

"But…he wasn't the first to call you something." Someone pointed out that it was only for the sheep woman to charge him, and before he could do so much as squeal, she grabbed onto his face, lifting him off the ground so he was closer to her face.

“Oh, he wasn’t?” She whispered, her smile returning closer to a wolf's. “Well, then it means I’ll just have to handle all of you. No sweaters for you, but I’ll make you some socks after I pummel you into the ground.”

Her fleece answered her silent plea, bursting like an angry swarm of hornets, and it wrapped around her captive, allowing her to use them as a human hammer to send crashing, swinging, and smacking into everyone else. She tore another piece of it as she fought, creating a shield to defend her front as she charged through their lines, their cries and screams being her music. At times when she felt like it, she would charge someone, head lowered and slam them into the walls, the bricks cracking like her victim's ribs as she pulled back and letting them wheeze and moan, unable to stand.

It wasn't as if her opponents had no powers or means to defend themselves; no matter what, they had all been selected for this test and wouldn't go down without a fight. One painted the air with shards of glass. Another grew an extra arm covered in barbs. And yet, she managed to evade their attacks, block those she couldn't, and counter with brutal human hammer hits or kicks, which were bone-on-bone.

A third breathed a low, choking fog that made it hard to breathe, a means to slow her down. While it managed to do just that, she only let her wool cover her nose and mouth, like a mask, and with a soft, white mask, continued like nothing had happened.

One seemed to shoot black spider-like webs from their wrists. This caught her shield and weapon, and while sad, she let both go, her human hammer's relieved screams muffled by the wool covering them. They were lucky the wool she had encased him in was hers, as he probably hardly felt a thing being smacked into anything she wished. When the other villain tried to trap her, she puffed her wool around her body, creating a cocoon.

"What the-!" The web maker asked, only to get clocked across the face as hands formed from the cocoon's surface and stretched out, hitting him. Several others, allowing Shearwolf to come out one more.

Another turned into a fusion of a cassowary and a velociraptor. They seemed to give her the best fight, evading her blows and even scoring another hit, but this tore her pant leg, leaving her to gasp.

"You-do you know how I had to work to make these?!" Shear stomped her hoof, cracking the ground.

She had to dodge another kick, but her opponent was not in the mood. “Like I care, lady! I’m trying to win!” As he turned to try and strike her again, she caught him in a bind, slowly restraining him.

“Well, you can win somewhere else!” She yelled as she tossed them high into the sky, where they'll land, she didn't know and didn't care as she turned to handle the rest- “Now whose…oh, that’s all?” She wanted to keep fighting, blow off some steam for her ruined clothing, but there wasn't anyone left standing. In fact, she made out a couple who had made a break for it, running in terror from her in ways she had experienced before.

She pouted, but allowed her body to shrink to its normal size, her horns losing their glow as she did so. "Meanies, they pick the fight and don't even stick around to finish it. But same old, same old…Maybe I should get their measurements to get started on those socks. I'm sure they wouldn't mind." She could still smile as she pulled out a measuring tape and a small notebook and got to work.

Line Break

The Mountain Tigers faced their own issues, but ones they would face as one.

They moved like a single predator, a lone predator with age and experience on their side, as they battled against the interloper through the old supermarket. The aisles had long since been cleared and rotten away, leaving a wide-open space where the morning light could pierce through the holes in the ceiling and the many windows out to the street.

The leader, named for his gang, was a large and proud tiger heteromorph. His body was covered in light black striped fur, and his teeth were capable of snapping bones. At his side, his second was a woman a decade his junior. Her skin was scaled like sunbaked shale, and she had quills like porcupines along her forearms and back—quills she was fully capable of firing like high-speed projectiles.

They were proud, well-versed in fighting against minor pros and other villains alike. They had plenty of reasons to be proud when they were invited to this battle royale, which could see them joining the illustrious ranks of the Thunder and rising higher than they thought possible.

But now, they only felt frustration, the porcupine lizard heteromorph flicking her tongue in annoyance. They had expected an easy win, not so much a complete and effortless victory but a quick one nonetheless.

Steel sang as it sliced through the air, their opponent still in the fight and hardly touched by them. She stood taller, almost as tall as the boss, with bleached blonde hair, eyes as yellow as gold, irises as red as rubies, slits like a feline. Her four arms held a long, finely decorated blade, long enough that one would assume each would be a 2 handed weapon.

Her style was an odd mix: a pleated knee-length skirt, with slits on the other side to allow her legs a much greater range of motion. A white dress shirt modified to suit her physiology, and finished with a large, fine red bow in place of a tie.

She didn't speak; she hadn't since they had attacked, and yet, despite their numbers, she was proving to be their hardest fight yet. Mountain Tiger tried to get in, using his superior size and speed to strike her down, but she parried his fist with two of her blades, while the other two moved to slash at his sides. One was intercepted by one of his boys while he jumped back to evade the second.

His man had to quickly follow, as their foe was a fast one. Her motions were so fast and staggered that one could hardly predict which arm would do what and when. This fact was made worse because it seemed like her wrists were not normal, as her range of motion was insane. It was made stranger because even when her wrist was bent and she blocked a heavy object, her wrist didn't seem to bruise when it should have been busted up a long time ago.

A high-arcing slash tapped the jaw of one of them. Still, instead of splitting it open and showing her in his blood, all that occurred was his head was knocked back, allowing her to add a follow-up push kick which sent the man tumbling back.

Mountain Tiger growled at the sight. He had picked up early that she wasn't holding the blades right. She kept the sharpened edge inward, allowing each of her blows to hit and hit hard when she willed it, but not split, cut, or slash through his men.

He could take some solace knowing this test wouldn't see him lose one of his boys, but that didn't mean he was about to let her just win. They still outnumbered her and would see her bested.

Kalee didn't make it easy for them; if anything, she handled them quite well. Even outnumbered and attacked from all sides, she kept them on their toes. Her fighting style, which had taken years of refinement and horrific loss, wasn't one so easily countered.

She didn't kill, but she didn't need to, as, even though they proved they weren't amateurs, her blows still landed on ribs, on shoulders, on thighs, even on their knees. She would go for groin shots, but that would be when her blades were in their scabbards, rendering them more as blunt force weapons, but as it stood, she had hardly spilt any blood from these fighters.

Out of the corner of her eye, she spied the young woman charging, her forearm grown quills rattling like a cloak of needles, which she fired at her. Kalee blocked a free, but opted to evade the rest.

Vaulting over some ruined and half-smashed shelves, her metallic-heeled feet hit the brick wall with a soft clang, and she jumped off it to another wall. Mid-jump, her feet shifted into talons, which hooked into the wall, helping her run across the surface. Building momentum, she leapt off with a spin, her blades in four clean arcs, handling the last of the quill barrage.

In the same move, before she landed, she flipped over one of the gang members and struck his shoulder hard. There was a crack as the bone cracked and broke, the man letting out the first part of a curse as she grabbed onto his face with her taloned foot and smashed him into the ground, knocking him out.

She didn't have time to think as another tiger was onto her, lunging at her with revenge in his eyes and swirling wind in his palms. A she knocked one hand off course, to the floor and the other she grabbed onto his wrist with her foot and supporting herself with just the one leg, she swung 2 of her blades into his side, letting out a soft grunt as she put an incredible amount of force into it, lifting the villain off his feet and sending him flying into the wall with a pained grunt-he wouldn’t be out, she doubted it, but he wouldn’t be an issue for the immediate moment.

She wasn't like them. She didn't vaunt or boast, and she didn't move about like she was trying to impress. Each move she made was precise and carefully calculated, without a thought to use the least amount of movement and energy required for maximum impact. Her red eyes seemed to jump around the room, constantly taking in her surroundings, the layout, the condition of the floor, and where her opponents were.

A pair of them tried to trap her from two sides. In response, she ran her claws along a near-ruined shelf, finding purchase before hooking around the throat of one and swinging it like a child would swing a toy doll, throwing it into a stack of crates.

When she turned to them, the light from the overhead holes didn't reach her face, leaving it shrouded in darkness; all they could make out was the glint of her steel and the almost glowing red of her eyes.

“Stay strong!” Their leader yelled, trying to rally them. “We can’t falter like a bunch of puss-!”

Kalee put an end to that, having closed the distance, and swung at him with all four blades, two to his shoulders and the other two to his side. It didn't break bone like the other, but it allowed her to land another two blows, both to his head, dazing the man. His second came up to fight.

"Boss!" She moved to fire on her, her quills having regrown, but Kalee was ready. Spotting some debris on the floor, she kicked it up and kicked it towards her. The other woman needed to dodge, her attention shifting to the rock for a few moments—more than enough time.

"Ka-!" She coughed as Kalee got close to her. Having flipped one of her blades, drove its pommel into her gut as hard as Kalee could manage, seeing the woman drop to her knee, trying to get some air into her lungs, she looked up in time to see Kalee swing again.

"Stay down," Kalee instructed as she smacked the woman in the side of the head with her pommel, knocking her down before she turned to the rest, seeing them helping their boss to his feet. Both sides eyed the other, as she was still outnumbered, but she had already taken out five of them and showed no signs of slowing down.

"Well?" she asked, holding up a blade to the big boss. "I'm waiting."

"Dammit…get her!" With a furious roar, the tiger refused to back down or surrender, which Kalee loved as she smiled, gripped her blades a little tighter, and leapt into the fray.

Line Break

“Impressive,” Mummy mused, watching the fight more closely than the others. “What did the files say about them?”

“You’re asking me?” Pyre asked in return, having approached the screens a while ago to get a better look at this. Koharu was keeping an eye on the town in general.

“You’re the walking hero encyclopaedia.” Mummy joked, to which Pyre pushed his side.

“That doesn’t mean I just know things, Mummy.”

“So you didn’t read their files?” Mummy teased, his eyes wrinkling, meaning he had to be smiling.

“Did you?” Pyre tried to catch him out, but the man was unashamed and confirmed as much, much to his teammate and friend’s disbelief.  “Unbelievable, and you’re supposed to be helping me proctor things.”

“I am, but onto their sheets?” Pyre groaned, ignoring how Mummy chuckled at him as he started listing facts he could recall from Giran's files.

“Shearwolf’s a B-ranked villain from Niigata. She's wanted for several crimes, including robbery and assault on a police officer. According to Giran, she's a real sweetie. Still, she is particular about her clothing as she makes it all with her quirk, which is incredibly versatile." He pointed to the one feed, which showed the sheep woman happily hiding in a building, creating…socks with her quirk? Well, they’ve seen stranger.

“Then we have the Volcano Thieves, also B-ranked villains who mainly operate in Shikoku but have done some jobs in Hiroshima. Similar to us, they’re hired guns and are pretty professional. Their leader was called the villainous Endeavour.” He gestured to another, where the 3 in question were gearing up to attack a small group trying to find someone to attack.

“Till you showed up.” Mummy got the stink eye as Pyre now knew he lied about reading the files.

But he could get him back later, probably by ensuring all his favourite snacks vanished. "Yes, and from how he looked at me, he wants the title of the strongest fire villain back." Pyre hadn’t missed how the older man looked at him earlier.

“Lastly, we have Kalee. She’s got the shortest rap sheet, but her skills don’t speak to someone who’s not trained hard. She lost her legs as a child and seems hell-bent on finding the person she holds responsible." Giran said she lost her legs because a hero didn't take his job seriously, and it was made worse because the villain was her uncle, trying to protect her.

“But he recently died of natural causes, so she’s somewhat aimless.” He finished with a sigh, as the man had been in Yoroi Musha's age group and had recently passed from a long battle with an illness. He went out loved and respected, and Kalee was a 'forgotten accident'.

“Probably the best one to recruit them, if she has no purpose, she would be the most open to our ideals and goals.” Mummy guessed that she had accepted this invitation as she must be open to something. Otherwise, she would probably have gone dormant, even gone straight and asked Giran to help her create a new identity.

“Maybe,” Pyre didn’t disagree, but he didn’t agree either. "But let's let things finish. They've already cut their numbers to around 70, not long before we call off the round."