Chapter Text
"Alright, so anyone want to change their bets?"
"I'm good on mine. In fact," Hellgaze took out three 500 yen bills and placed them in the bucket on the bar counter. "...I'll add to it."
Shigaraki took a sip of his OJ before pulling out four 100 yen bills and putting them in the bucket. "400 on Uraraka."
Kelly raised an eyebrow.
"Hey, she can break the laws of physics and played a part in killing the Anti-All Might Nomu. She's busted as fuck."
"Fair enough." The mercenary turned towards Kurogiri. "What about you, Shades?"
"I told you before, I don't gamble." Kurogiri looked at the bar TV showing the Sports Festival. "Besides, this is supposed to be recon on our possible future enemies."
"It was. And then we made it 100 times more fun." Kelly said before chugging down an entire mug of beer. "Trust me; recon is a whole lot better when you have fun with it."
Shigaraki had to agree. Originally, he planned on spending this day just goofing and gaming, but Sensei insisted that watching the Sports Festival would help him get a better idea of how his potential 'future foes' would operate. He was ready to be bored and pissed off, having to watch the kids who humiliated the League of Villains get sucked off by the entire populace. But Kelly and Hellgaze, watching alongside him while they got more than a little drunk, made things more fun.
And while there were plenty of potential future threats to the League participating in the First Years tournament, Shigaraki's eyes were on three people: Tenya Iida, Ochako Uraraka, and Izuku Midoriya.
Iida hadn't done anything mind-blowing, but he still showed some skill during the obstacle race. And years of PVP games taught Shigaraki that sometimes the simplest and least assuming weapons were the most deadly. Not to mention that he was still pissed at the kid for shoulder-checking him into a building.
Uraraka was proving to be even more ridiculous. She clearly had a breakthrough with her gravity Quirk. And he had a feeling that being able to basically fly wasn't all she was capable of now.
And then there was Midoriya and his goofy-ass robot. Shigaraki never felt more disconnected from the public opinion than all those dismissing the kid and his obviously OP machine. Though it seemed that all of Japan was learning just how broken that damn thing was.
So yeah, he got to see the kids he hated beating the shit out of each other, got some intel, and probably some extra yen. No matter what, this day was a win in his book.
Meanwhile...
"HAJIME!"
At Momotaro's cry, doors all across the floor level of the Cylindrical Dungeon slid open, and eleven teams of students rushed to claim the treasure. Most of them decided to try going to unoccupied floors for less competition.
Inside one of the lower levels, Izuku led the way, a pair of goggles on his face.
"You know, when I told my dad about all the robots in the entrance exam, he went on a whole rant about taxes going to a 'theme park school,'" Agoyamato said as they continued their trek. "I'm starting to think he might've had a point."
"Really makes you wonder how U.A. can afford all this shit," Togeike chimed in.
"If I had to guess, Mr. Cementoss probably made this whole dungeon."Izuku stopped and looked at one of the small cameras that lined the walls of the corridor. "And Maijima probably built some of the traps that Mr. Aizawa hinted at."
The quartet spotted a treasure chest at the end of the hallway. But then, Aoyama noticed one of the ceiling plates moving, and screamed as something came and almost bopped him on the head. "Le Lutin!?" Aoyama shrieked
Standing before and glaring at the group was a goblin plucked straight out of a fairy tale. Or rather, a small robot made to look like a goblin, around the size of a ten-year old kid, and armed with a blunt axe.
"See. Theme Park Shit," Agoyamato stated as he started to look around for stuff to load into his hair.
"Seriously, how the heck can U.A. afford all of this!?" Togeike shouted as thorns grew from her skin.
"I don't know, and we don't have time to think about it." Izuku reared up his gauntlets. "So let's get rid of these mobs!"
Deep within the dungeon in a secret chamber, Cementoss sat in a chair, chewing on a melon bun as he watched several screens. On each of those screens was another team of students taking on different obstacles.
Tsuyu's team was trapped in a convoluted maze. Koda's team was dealing with a crystal ball that wouldn't open a door until they solved a riddle. Katsuki's team was falling into a pit of goo. These were but a few of several dozen challenges that lay before the heroes in the training.
'And Mother said playing D&D would never have real-world applications.' The block-headed man bemusedly thought to himself as he continued to watch the mayhem unfold, tapping his feet to change up parts of the dungeon whenever he saw fit.
In another part of the dungeon, Ochako's team opened a door, and all four students' eyes widened in shock. In the room was a narrow bridge over a seemingly bottomless chasm. At the end of the bridge was a huge mountain of gold.
Unfortunately, atop said pile of gold was a dragon. Its eyes were closed, and soft snores reverberated through the chamber; it even had one of those snot bubbles anime characters get when they sleep.
"Oh, come on!" Mineta whispered-yelled. "This is so unfair!"
"You think we can sneak around it?" Ashido asked.
"Isn't it a robot? Can robots even sleep?" Komori chimed in.
"Maybe it's like...I don't know, a test of courage?" Ochako said. "Like a school festival haunted house."
"Oh yeah, they spent a lot of money to build a big fuckoff dragon robot only for it to do nothing." Mineta chimed back sarcastically.
Ashido tapped her finger on her chin before her black and yellow eyes widened. "I got an idea!"
Said idea was having Mineta throw another one of his grape balls filled with Komori's spores, creating a big, bouncy mushroom on the upper wall. The plan was to have Ochako bounce and slowly fly over the dragon while Ashido floated near the mushroom. Ochako would then throw treasure at Ashido from across the room, who, in turn, would throw it down at Mineta and Komori.
Holding her breath, Ochako bounced on the mushroom, pushing herself slowly over the 'sleeping' robot dragon. And to their collective horror, as soon as the gravity manipulator was above the dragon, it 'woke up' and roared at Ochako.
"EEP!" Ochako yelped, quickly altering her gravitational path to evade the swipes of the creature. "Easy, big guy!"
"I knew it was faking!" Mineta shouted before Ashido fell on top of him and Komori. The three got up, and their eyes widened as they saw the dragon robot turn its head towards them.
"Oh, shiitake," Kinoko said as she shook.
"Run!" At Ashido's words, the three ran back to the room entrance just as the dragon robot fired something from its mouth. The three evaded the projectile goo that coated the other side of the wall facing the entrance. "Ew! What is that?"
"That's capture putty!" Mineta exclaimed, seeing the putty harden against the wall. "If that hits us, we can't move!" He looked back in and saw Ochako continuing to evade the dragon robot's claw attacks. "Uraraka, can't you just float it? Or smash it?"
"Too heavy to float!" She said, dodging the dragon's attacks. "And if I do the opposite, I could end up breaking the bridge for you guys!" As she dodged, she hoped that her friends were doing better than her right now.
Meanwhile, with Tenya's team...
"Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!" Shinso shouted as he and his teammates entered a vacant room and closed the door behind them. Not far behind them, a trio of robots in the shape of rock golems stomped through the halls, each had a treasure chest trapped in their chests. In the room, Shinso sighed in relief, but he only had a few seconds to relax until Kamakiri slammed him against the wall.
"This is all your fault, lazy ass!" The bug boy exclaimed quietly. "You just had to throw pocket sand in our eyes like a bitch and go for the gold, didn't ya?"
"I'm with Kamakiri. Not in terms of vulgarity, but sentiment." Yaoyorozu replied with a stern look. "You could've waited until we checked for traps or—"
"The hell is this 'we' nonsense?" Shinso said with a scowl. "Are your heads so far up your asses that you forgot this is a competition? Why would I work with you when I'm trying to knock you off your pedestals?"
Yaoyorozu was about to retort, but Kamakiri made a zipping motion over her lips, making Shinso smirk.
"Aw, what's the matter, cat got your tongue?" Shinso asked, his voice dripping with venom. "How does it feel to finally have someone who doesn't endlessly praise you and—"
"Enough!" The three bickering students nearly fell over as an authoritative voice struck them. They turned to see Tenya, a stern and frustrated expression on his face. "Every moment we argue is another wasted opportunity to gather treasure; it will only impede our progress." Tenya sighed and turned to Shinso. "I understand you perhaps feel cheated out of your chance to get into the hero course due to the nature of the entrance exam, and you're correct in that we're technically competing. However, right now, we are teammates, and your hostility is sabotaging your chances of being let into the hero course. If you want the chance to impress the teachers and prove yourself, we must work together to make it to the final round."
Shinso and Tenya stared at each other for a moment, the air thick with tension. After a moment, Shinso sighed and let out a grumbling, "Fine, I'll play along."
Kamakiri triumphantly smirked at Shinso, but his expression quickly changed when he noticed Tenya staring at him. "What?" the green-haired boy asked.
"By that same token, I understand how you must feel about Shinso at the moment, Kamakiri," Tenya said sternly and calmly. "But I must ask that you put your feelings aside and work with him, along with Yaoyorozu and myself. No "lone wolf" nonsense, we don't want a repeat of the Hero vs Villains training, do we?"
Kamakiri felt his face burn with embarrassment. "Fine! Whatever!"
"Excellent! Now we can form a plan of attack!" exclaimed with a smile, chopping the air excitedly.
'It's exactly as you taught me, brother,' Tenya thought as he and his team devised a plan. 'Cooperation in the face of struggle is the key to success for any hero team. It takes a firm but gentle hand to guide your teammates through these sorts of petty disagreements. That's what makes you such an amazing leader, Tensei, and I hope to be even half the hero you are someday.'
Elsewhere in the dungeon...
"WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU IDIOTS!?"
Kaminari was forced to cover his ears from the sheer intensity of the scream. "Dude, what the hell? You don't need to yell at us or call us stupid."
"Not to mention your shouting could attract more monsters, ribbit," Tsuyu stated plainly.
Honenuki stared at his teammates in indignation. "Maybe I wouldn't need to yell or swear if you guys could just follow orders."
"Hey, I didn't vote you team captain," Kaminari said.
"Me neither," Tsuyu said.
"Nor did I," Shiozaki said.
Honenuki clenched his fists, trying to repress his rising anger. "Someone had to take charge, so I appointed myself as team captain."
Kaminari crossed his arms and pouted. "Well, I say we have an election for a new captain, here and now."
"We don't have time for this!"
"Honestly, electing a new leader might get us through the dungeon faster, considering we keep getting held up by your tirades, ribbit."
Shiozaki nodded in agreement. "Indeed, there is great discord in your heart, Honenuki. You unleash the sin of wrath upon us even though we are simply trying to work together so we might win this event."
"Seriously, what crawled up your ass and died?" Kaminari asked.
Honenuki froze. The answer to his behavior in the dungeon was quite simple: Izuku Midoriya, the Quirkless Wonder of U.A.'s hero course. It was bad enough that he hadn't wised up and moved over to one of the other courses, like GenEd or Management, after the USJ. Ironically, the attack somehow sparked a fire under the idiot. Even after his first toy got wrecked fighting those villains, Izuku just went ahead and built a new one.
The only way Honenuki could describe Midoroiya's suicidal mindset was complete and utter insanity, an insanity rivaled only by U.A.'s indulgence of the green wannabe hero. Honenuki knew so many people who deserved a spot in U.A.'s hero course more than that nerd running around playing pretend with his action figure. Izuku Midoriya was going to get himself killed and probably take everyone around him with him, and he was the only one who could see it.
Of course, it's not like Honenuki could actually say his real thoughts to his teammates.
"We don't have time for this!" Honenuki screamed, pushing past his teammates to take them further into the. "Just shut keep moving! Every second we spend yapping is another second the other teams—"
CLICK!
Honenuki and his entire team froze. The lipless teen looked down and saw his foot on top of a pressure plate.
A pressure plate he had just activated.
"...shit."
In the Teachers' Box...
President Miyashima watched the video feed from inside the dungeon with a cold, analytical gaze as she sipped on the cocktail Nezu had made her. 'As annoying as he is, the rat makes a wonderful drink. He should really consider becoming a mixologist.'
"I take it you're enjoying the festival, Madame President?" Nezu asked before taking a sip of his tea.
"Yes, it's been quite a while since we've seen a group of first years this talented," Miyashima said with a practiced smile.
Nezu gave a light chuckle. "I wouldn't say it's all due to talent; they've all been working quite hard. We aim to give them the support they need to grow into their best selves."
"And some are given a lot more support than others," Agent Wada said sharply, ice clinking in his glass of whiskey. "That mecha you built for Midoriya let him turn the obstacle course into a goddamn playground."
Nezu simply smiled. "Actually, if you recall our previous discussion on the matter, Midoriya built the first iteration of Striker without the aid of UA. While Mr. Maijima provided help on the design, neither he nor UA provided any additional funding for Midoriya prior to him entering UA."
Agent Wada rolled his eyes behind his sunglasses. "And I suppose those upgrades and fancy new versions were all his, too, right?"
"Striker is Midoriya's support gear, and now that he's a student of UA, we offer help to Midoriya in upgrading and developing new versions of his support gear to enable him to be the best hero he can. It's the same support we offer to all our students, he's simply the first to come to us with a giant robot," Nezu said calmly. "Besides, it looks like Midoriya's doing quite well without Striker at the moment."
Nezu sipped his tea as he and the others watched Izuku dispatch three robot goblins in quick succession. Under Izuku's leadership, Team Jade defeated the hoard and collected their treasure before making their way further into the dungeon. Agent Wada said nothing, his mouth pressing into a thin line.
"Well, it's clear that Midoriya's passion for heroics burns bright," President Miyashima said, a sly smile on her lips. "Let's just hope he doesn't burn himself out as we've seen with so many promising heroes-to-be before him."
With Team Jade...
"That was harder than I thought it would be," Togeike said as Team Jade ran through the corridors. "If those were regular mobs, what the hell are the big ones going to be like?"
The team came upon a door and opened it to see a large room, empty except for a chest smack dab in the center of it. "I've got a feeling we're about to find out," Izuku said, eyeing the chest suspiciously. "Aoyama, can you try to blast the chest open?"
"Oui, Monsieur Midoriya!" Aoyama exclaimed with a flourish. He stood outside the door, flanked by the rest of Team Jade, and fired a thin laser beam at the chest. The laser cut through the lock, and it fell to the ground with a clatter. The team waited with bated breath, expecting some kind of monster to make itself known, but all was quiet.
"Huh, weird," Togeike said. "Maybe they forgot to—"
Suddenly, the floor came alive, shifting and rippling, and the four students were flung into the room as the door shut behind them. As if to add insult to injury, a robotic troll monster burst forth from the ground, standing between Team Jade and the treasure.
"Oh, come on!" Agoyamato cried in frustration.
Izuku looked at his watch and saw that nearly ten minutes had passed, leaving only twenty minutes of the event left. And he realized that if they were just going to get jumped by robotic monsters constantly, they would run out of time to gather treasure. Plus, he had played enough Dungeons and Dragons with Katsuki as the DM to know that you had to be careful with most chests, since there's a good chance they could be booby-trapped.
"Aoyoma, Togeike. You guys go after the treasure. Agoyamato, you and I are going to handle the troll."
"Understood!" Togeike was taken aback as Aoyoma picked her up in a bridle carry and faced away from the troll. "Brace yourself, mademoiselle."
"Wait, wha-AAAGGHH!" Before she could say anything else, Tokeige and Aoyoma were blasted into the air by the eccentric boy's naval laser. The troll tried to strike at them, but Izuku grabbed the cannon from his back and aimed it at the troll.
"Air Blast Cannon!" A burst of air launched from the cannon, knocking the club out of the troll's hand and letting their two teammates pass it. The troll let out a mechanical growl as it rushed towards Izuku. He dropped the Air Cannon and took up a boxing fighting stance.
"Looks like Midoriya's gonna go mano-a-robo with the troll!" Present Mic commented. And suffice to say, certain members of the audience were not too confident in Izuku's ability to take down a troll without Striker.
BlazeBoy222 - Yo, are they about to show this kid getting slaughtered on TV?!
ConcernedLook - It's like watching a car crash about to happen.
Dj Daking - Oh, lawd! We about to be smoking that Midoriya pack!
At the same time, Ochako and Tenya's teams started to turn the tide on their respective opponents. While Ochako was acting as a flying distraction for the dragon, Komori and Mineta threw some more spore-infected grape balls that managed to restrict it. Ashido followed by creating an acid slide under her feet, sliding underneath the dragon and firing some acid at its chest, exposing its core. Ochako then 'landed' on the wall and began focusing her Quirk into her right hand, the energy swirling and shimmering like a galaxy.
Tenya's team also began to turn the tide against the three golems. With Shinso acting as bait, Kamakiri and Yaoyorozu were able to start corralling them with blades and bo staff, respectively, all while Tenya lined himself up in a giant makeshift slingshot that Yaoyorozu had created out of two metal pillars and a giant rubber band. He had to time this right.
Three youngsters needed to prove to the world that they were here. That they were serious about being heroes. And they weren't going to let their teammates down.
Izuku rushed the troll bot. The mechanical beast reared its fist back before swinging at Izuku. The boy side-stepped the fist and struck at its stomach with two quick jabs, sparks flying from his gauntlets. He weaved in and out of the way troll's strikes, its fists cracking the ground where once Izuku stood. The troll raised its foot to slam down on Izuku. The boy leaped back and threw some pellets from his belt, encasing its left foot in capture putty and immobilizing it.
"Well, dang! Looks like Midoriya's got some moves!"
"He should have 'em, Mic," Gunhead responded. "He was one of the students in my martial arts course. I encouraged the kiddies to figure out their own unique fighting styles and combat techniques. And Midoriya's developed quite the interesting mixed fighting style."
Gunhead was right. In the time leading up to the Sports Festival, Izuku created a fighting style that not only would be translatable to Striker and how it would fight, but also would take advantage of everything he was good at. The boxing strikes he had employed, in combination with his Shock Gauntlets, had fried some of the robo-troll's inner-circuitry, making its movements slower. A fact that was compounded when he tore its leg out of the capture putty, leaving it wobbling on one foot.
'Now!' Izuku thought to himself. He took a low stance before running towards the troll. The mechanical beast roared before throwing a punch...and that sealed its fate.
Izuku weaved out of the way of the punch, stopping and taking a side stance, his left foot against the troll's stump. He grabbed the troll's wrist with both hands before kicking back to knock the troll off balance, causing it to start falling forward. 'Use its own momentum against it!'
"MECHA-MARTIAL ARTS: STEEL OVERHEAD!"
With a passionate yell, Izuku swung the troll over his shoulder, slamming the creature into the ground and knocking it onto its back. Agoyamato was stunned by this, as were many of the audience who watched it unfold.
"Agoyamato, go for its head!"
The gen-ed student snapped out of his stunned stupor and quickly loaded another rock into his pompadour. With his own yell, he blasted the rock right into the robot's head, shattering it to pieces and taking it down for good.
"Holy shit, dude!" Agoyamato said as he walked towards Izuku. "How did you do that?"
"Mr. Gunhead taught me all sorts of techniques," Izuku explained as he rotated his shoulder. "And some of my friends helped me develop my own fighting style."
"So, like MMA?"
"A little bit like that. It's sort of a combination of boxing, judo, and a little bit of sumo and grappling thrown in there. I call it," a big smile appeared on the young pilot's face, "Mecha-Martial Arts!"
"...are you still workshopping the name or—"
Izuku pouted and crossed his arms. "Hey, when you make your own fighting style, you can name it whatever you want. I mean, you should hear what Kacchan calls his fighting style."
At the same time, Ochako's team saw their teammate shooting at the dragon. In the split second she had before impact, the brunette had to make sure her attack didn't also hit the bridge. Energy swirled in her fist as she reared it back.
"JUPITER SMASH!"
With a mighty yell, Ochako punched the dragon in the chest, gravity warping around her fist. The robot went flying across the room, smashing to pieces when it hit the wall.
Komori and Ashido's eyes widened before the mushroom girl looked down at Mineta. "You weren't kidding when you said she was crazy strong."
"Yup. She's one of 1-B's Heaviest Hitters for a reason." Mineta said with a smile. Ever since their encounter with Hellgaze at the USJ, the little guy had a ton of respect for Ochako. Hell, she was kind of a milestone that Mineta compared himself to.
"Way to go, Uraraka!" Ashido said, giving Ochako a double high-five as she landed.
"Nothing to it! Now let's get that treasure!"
And with Tenya's team, after some rocky dismemberment from Kamakiri and some explosives from Yaoyorozu, the golems were lined up. Tenya jumped off the ground, allowing the slingshot to send him flying forward, boosted by his Quirk, effectively turning him into a human rocket.
"RECIPIO PIERCE!"
In an instant, Tenya shattered the three treasure chests, his leg piercing them like some bizarre kebab. Gold and jewels littered the floor as he landed and slid to a stop. And without the treasure to power them, the golem robots shut down. Tenya looked back at the golems with a satisfied smile.
"Well, that went better than I expected," Yaoyorozu stated as she approached Tenya. "Your plan went off without a hitch, Iida."
"True. But we all played our part well. Especially you, Yaoyorozu."
"If you say so."
"I do!" He said earnestly. "The plan wouldn't have worked if your creations weren't so well-crafted. You were invaluable to our team."
Yaoyorozu smiled at such honest praise, twirling her ponytail with her finger. "I suppose you're right."
"Can you two save the flirting for later?" Shinso asked as he and Kamakiri removed the treasure chests from Tenya's lance. Yaoyorozu's face turned bright red.
"W-We weren't—"
"Shinso! You can't just say things like that!" Tenya yelled, chopping the air.
Shinso rolled his eyes. "Whatever, can we grab the treasure and get moving?"
Still blushing, Tenya scooped up a handful of treasure and nodded. "Of course, no time for delay. Onward!"
"Lead the way, Specs," Kamakiri said as he and Shinso followed behind Tenya. Yaoyorozu brought up the rear, her face still bright red.
'He didn't deny he was flirting with me,' the black-haired girl thought as she and her team ran further into the dungeon.
Meanwhile...
"Explosive Death Art!" Katsuki shouted before blasting himself at a minotaur robot and slamming his foot into its face. "Killer Blast Stomp!"
"Oh my god." Kendo palmed her face with her normal-sized left hand while holding down another minotaur robot with her enlarged right hand. "I thought you were kidding when you said you were going to call it that."
"Why would I? It's awesome!"
"Hatsume, can you..."
"And as you can see..." Mei was too busy looking right into the corridor camera, presenting a net cannon that had helped in subduing the final member of the minotaur trio, like she was in an infomercial. While Mei was basically trying to do a sales pitch to any support companies that could be watching, Rin was looking around the trap room that the four had fallen into. The talking sphinx said that if they 'braced the dangers below, a grand treasure would be their reward.' They had escaped the trap goo and dealt with minotaurs, but still, no treasure. But he then noticed a pit near the center of the room. He approached it and looked down. And then, the shock of his three teammates, Rin jumped in.
"Oh shit!" Kendo punched the minotaur down and rushed to the pit. "Rin, grab my-" But she was cut off when a large bag of plastic gold flew up from the pit and hit her in the face. Rin got back up from the pit, and the three saw that his eyes had taken on a reptilian look and glow.
"Just like the sphinx said. I embraced the danger below." He said with a smirk.
"Not bad, Scales," Katsuki said with a smirk as Mei quickly placed the bag of gold into her carrier pack. Kendo looked at Rin in concern.
"But still, you leaped into a hole that could've led to like, an endless pit, or spikes or something. You could've let us know before you..."
Rin just glared at Kendo. "Look, I don't know what this stupid 'concerned mother hen' thing you clearly want to do with Midoriya is about, but don't try doing that same shit on me."
Kendo's eyes widened. "What are you-"
"Come on, Fisticuffs! We got more treasure to find!" Katsuki shouted, making Kendo groan as Rin ran past her, and she had to turn around to follow.
Mei led the pack, her scanner at the ready. "Come on, baby. Lead Mama and her team to more goodies!"
But as the four reached a four-way intersecting hallway, tragedy struck. Out of one of the halls, a screaming Kaminari ran with reckless abandon and collided with Mei. Kaminari screamed in shock as he instinctively unleashed a burst of electricity. The electricity enveloped Mei and her backpack, which began to short-circuit and spark, causing a chain reaction that started to affect all of her gadgets.
As Mei recovered from the shock, both literal and figurative, she looked at her gear, and her face paled. "No, no, no, no!" Mei screamed as she took off her backpack and opened it up, her eyes widening in horror at the sight of all her wonderful creations. Now rendered as useless as anything pooped out by generative AI. "My babies!"
"Oh, shit. Sorry about that." Kaminari said, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment, only to reel back when Mei tried lunging at him and was stopped by Kendo grabbing her.
"LET ME AT THAT BABY KILLER!" Mei shouted.
"Easy, Crazy Eyes," Katsuki said, patting his girlfriend's head in an attempt to calm her down…before he turned and glared at the still frazzled Kaminari. "Apologize to her, Dunceface."
"I did!"
"What's going on?" Tsuyu and Shiozaki soon appeared, coming from the same direction Kaminari did. "Oh, hey Katsuki."
"'Sup, Tsu?" Katsuki then noticed that Honenuki was carrying their treasure. "I see you drew the short straw with No Lips over here."
"The hell's that supposed to mean?" Honenuki scoffed. "I was one of the four recommended students in our year!"
"And yet that didn't stop you triggering that griffin trap, ribbit," Tsuyu clarified.
"Ha!" Katsuki laughed. But then, the seven of them heard the griffin getting closer, preparing to battle. It lunged at Katsuki, talons outstretched. Katsuki raised his hands, palms crackling with tiny explosions.
As he raised his hands to meet the griffin's attack, the whole dungeon rumbled and shook. "The fuck!?" Katsuki yelled as he was sent sprawling to the ground. The griffin soared past Katsuki, its talon striking the floor. Rather than a crack or clang, it struck with a strange plop sound. As the griffin sank into the floor like it was quicksand, the monster's front half already submerged, Katsuki glanced up to see Honenuki standing over it.
"Looks like this bird's wings have been clipped," Honenuki said with a self-satisfied smirk. "Now, what was that you were saying?"
Katsuki rolled his eyes as he got up. "Congrats, No Lips, you managed to clean up your own mess."
"Screw you, you rabid Pomeranian!" Honenuki spat.
"Stop it! Both of you," Kendo said, enlarging her hands to push the two apart. "Save the fighting for later, we've got more important things to worry about."
"Yeah! Like what the heck was up with all that shaking?" Kaminari asked. The dungeons rumbled once more, the vibrations even stronger.
"Alright, little heroes, you've done a pretty rocking job at plundering this dungeon for all its shiny goodies," Present Mic shouted. "But now it's time for the party to really start, 'cause what's a dungeon without a BIG BAD BOSS!"
"Ooh, boss fights are always so much fun," Gunhead said. "But if you don't think you're high enough level, you can always try to run. Although I don't know if they'll let you get away with all their treasure. Good luck!"
Katsuki sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "God fucking damn it."
Within the dungeon, two figures were activated. They were mechanical beings like the rest of the dangers in the dungeon, bigger than the three-point robots, though not quite the colossal menaces that the Zero Pointers were. Their movements began to shake the chambers that hosted them, and their voices echoed throughout the dungeon, frightening those who heard them.
"Our...treasure...YOU WILL NOT HAVE OUR ROYAL TREASURE!"
"Good luck, kiddos!" Present Mic and Gunhead said with big grins.
To be continued...