Chapter 68: An Attack, a Fight
On the other side of the USJ, after the villain's warp teleportation scattered the class, Izuku had just wrapped up his intense battle against the low-level villains in the flooded zone. His body ached from the strain, and he had pushed his quirk too far again—two fingers on his right hand were visibly broken, swollen and throbbing with every heartbeat.
Tsuyu hopped closer on the wet concrete, her large eyes scanning him with concern.
"Izuku, are you okay? After all, you used your quirk several times."
Izuku, gritting his teeth to control the throbbing pain radiating from his broken fingers, forced a smile and replied:
"I'm fine. You don't need to worry about me."
Tsuyu tilted her head slightly.
"All right then. Hold on to me. I'll take you to the other side. You won't be able to swim properly with your hand like that—it's too injured."
Izuku nodded gratefully.
"Thanks, Tsuyu."
She crouched low, and Izuku climbed onto her back. Tsuyu then leaped into the cold water of the flooded zone, cutting through it with precise, powerful strokes—her long tongue occasionally aiding propulsion while her strong frog-like legs kicked efficiently. The water splashed around them as she navigated the simulated shipwreck debris, carrying Izuku safely across the expansive artificial lake.
Arriving on the solid shore of the opposite side, they climbed up onto dry ground and collapsed for a moment to rest, both panting heavily from the exertion, sitting on the wet, cracked edge of the platform.
Tsuyu caught her breath first and looked at Izuku.
"So, what should we do now? Do you have any idea?"
Izuku, still analyzing the chaotic situation in his mind with his serious, thoughtful expression, replied:
"Our priority is to try to get help from outside. So we should head straight to the exit, carefully avoiding the central plaza where the main fight is happening."
Tsuyu agreed.
"That's true. After all, the plaza is completely full of villains now—we'd be walking into a trap."
Izuku continued, his voice steady despite the pain.
"The professor was holding his own pretty well against them at first, but with this large number of villains swarming, we don't know the current situation anymore. So we should find a way to call for external help before things get even worse and spiral out of control."
Tsuyu asked, her voice laced with worry:
"But can't we really help the professor at all? He's fighting alone..."
Izuku gripped his injured hand tighter, wincing from the intense pain shooting up his arm.
"No. If we go back, we'll only distract the professor—he'd have to split his focus to take care of us and protect us, putting him in even more danger than he already is. With our current strength and my injuries, the only thing we can realistically do to help Mr. Aizawa is seek external reinforcements as fast as possible."
Tsuyu nodded reluctantly.
"Then let's go—we can't waste time."
Just as they were about to stand and run off toward the exit path, something colossal plummeted from the sky at terrifying high speed, like a living meteor streaking down. The impact slammed into the middle of the artificial lake with a deafening, earth-shaking explosion—water erupting upward in a gigantic column hundreds of feet high, followed by a violent shockwave that ripped across the zone like a tsunami on land, throwing Izuku and Tsuyu far away. They rolled uncontrollably across the wet ground, debris flying everywhere.
Izuku, acting on pure instinct, grabbed Tsuyu mid-tumble and pulled her close to his side, curling his body around hers to shield her from the full brunt of the shockwave and the sharp flying debris.
After everything finally calmed down—the lake now sporting a massive, steaming crater in its center, water rushing in violently to try to fill the void—they pushed themselves up, coughing and dazed, and finally looked at the incredible damage.
Izuku muttered, still stunned and ears ringing:
"What... what was that?"
He then heard a familiar voice cutting through the settling mist:
"Well, that was the monster these villains brought specifically to kill All Might... and me."
Izuku, recognizing the voice immediately, looked up just in time to see Aoi descending from the sky in a blazing trail of blue flames, controlling his descent perfectly and landing softly beside them. The impact of his landing still made the ground tremble lightly, cracks spiderwebbing out from his feet.
Izuku asked, completely confused:
"How do you mean kill you and All Might?"
Tsuyu also looked at him, equally puzzled.
Aoi glanced at them both and said calmly but urgently:
"You don't need to go into all the details right now. Just know that thing isn't human anymore—it's a bio-engineered machine created solely to kill high-level targets like us."
At that exact moment, as Aoi finished explaining to Izuku and Tsuyu, the monster burst out of the lake with a guttural, inhuman roar that shook the air. It hovered menacingly, wings torn and battered but still functional, beating powerfully to keep it aloft, its glowing red eyes locked on Aoi with pure killing intent.
Aoi looked at it and sighed, but a wild, battle-hungry gleam sparked in his eyes:
"Yes, of course you didn't die yet, you irritating thing."
Aoi then launched himself at it with explosive high speed, the air itself cracking and booming from the impulse of his blue flames propelling him forward like a living missile. The combat ignited in the air instantly: the two clashed in a blinding series of brutal, lightning-fast blows—Aoi weaving and dodging by mere millimeters from razor-sharp claws that sliced the air with deadly, whistling sounds that could be heard even from the ground, counterattacking with flaming punches and elbows that landed with thunderous cracks, forcing the Nomu to recoil and twist mid-flight to avoid being knocked out of the sky.
Aoi spun mid-air and kicked with his leg fully enveloped in Conqueror's Haki of Fire, the strike connecting with devastating power—the impact destroyed one of the monster's feet entirely in a burst flesh and shattered bone, dark blood spraying in an as the Nomu roared in primal fury, the sound echoing across the zone like a beast from hell.
The Nomu counterattacked without pause, its remaining claws raking across Aoi's chest in a savage swipe—three deep, gigantic gashes opening up, flesh ripping apart with wet, horrifying sounds, blood gushing out as exposed muscles twitched. The pain was immediate and searing, but Aoi's blue flames surged brighter, regeneration kicking in furiously—the wounds bubbling and knitting closed visibly, steam rising as the fire cauterized and rebuilt tissue in seconds.
Aoi didn't miss a beat, responding with a flaming knee driven straight into the monster's face. The impact was cataclysmic—the Nomu's head snapped back violently, several teeth shattering and flying out like projectiles as it was hurled downward. The creature crashed into the ground with earth-shaking force, dragged across the concrete by the momentum, carving a deep furrow dozens of meters long. Simulated structures crumbled in its path until it finally slammed into a reinforced wall, the concrete exploding outward in huge chunks around the impact point.
Aoi landed on the cracked ground with a heavy thud that sent vibrations through the area, breathing heavily but with a full maniacal smile spreading across his face. The blue fire pulsed even stronger across his body, aggressively regenerating the lingering damage from the deep chest cuts—flesh visibly knitting back together layer by layer, temporary scars fading away as if they never existed.
He thought intensely: "Even without super regeneration like the other one, this bastard has absurdly high defense. My blows are landing and doing damage, but way too slowly—it's built to tank hits from top pros. If I keep grinding at this pace, by the time I finally finish him off, Professor Aizawa and Professor 13 might already be dead or critically injured when I finally arrive to support them. I need to end this fast."
Izuku and Tsuyu ran up close, eyes wide from witnessing the aerial carnage.
Izuku asked, still catching his breath and staring at the destruction:
"Aoi, did you manage to defeat the monster?"
Tsuyu pointed at the monster slowly rising again, wings flapping heavily to regain balance amid the rubble, and said:
"I don't think so. Look—it's getting up."
Aoi turned to them and said seriously, his voice cutting through the tension:
"Izuku, I need your help and Tsuyu's right now. I have to finish this monster as quickly as possible to go help the professor—he's fighting a giant monster engineered specifically to kill All Might. But the problem here is this one's extremely high defense. I won't be able to defeat it in short time fighting alone. That's why I need your help to set up the finishing blow."
Izuku said, his face set in determination despite the lingering pain:
"Aoi, what do we need to do exactly?"
Aoi explained quickly.
"I need you two to throw it high into the sky and immobilize it for about 5 seconds—hold it steady up there. I have a ultimate attack I can use to finish it off for good once and for all, but if I unleash it on the ground level, there's a high chance the blast radius will affect our classmates who are also fighting scattered villains in the other areas."
Tsuyu said resolutely.
"Leave it to us. You can definitely count on us."
Aoi then locked eyes on the approaching monster, its roar building again, and said:
"Then let's go—no holding back."
Izuku charged forward toward the monster, ignoring the explosive pain shooting through his broken fingers, channeling every ounce of remaining power into his legs and arms. He leaped and unleashed a strong, precise smash with his remaining good fingers—the punch connected full force on the monster's face, the impact snapping its head back violently and blinding it momentarily with the sheer shock and disorientation.
Tsuyu seized the perfect opening without hesitation, extending her long, powerful tongue like a whip. It wrapped around the massive Nomu's torso multiple times like a living rope, coiling tight, and she yanked with all her frog-like strength, hurling it upward into the air.
But the creature's immense weight limited the height—it only rose a moderate distance, hovering unsteadily for a brief instant.
Izuku shouted in frustration:
"Damn! That height is still too low for Aoi to safely launch his attack without risking fallout!"
Izuku pushed through the agony, accelerating even faster, and leaped with everything he had left in his legs. He soared up and delivered an upward devastating punch right to the monster's stomach—the full-powered smash connected perfectly, forcing dark fluid to vomit from its maw as the force launched it upward with incredible violence. The Nomu rocketed higher, slamming into the reinforced ceiling of the USJ dome with a boom that cracked the massive structure, debris raining down.
Aoi, witnessing the perfect setup, smiled fiercely with battle lust.
"Well, then now it's truly my turn."
Drawing inspiration from Ulquiorra Cifer's Lanza del Relámpago, Aoi concentrated his blue flames into a long, sleek, vibrating lance—the flames trembling and compressing at ultra-high frequency, building condensed destructive energy that hummed with power.
He gripped it tight and threw it with full, unrestrained force, roaring:
"Take this, my Lanza de la Resonancia, you shit!"
The flaming lance streaked like a blue comet, hitting the suspended Nomu dead center in the chest with a piercing, hissing sound as the high-speed vibration tore through flesh and bone. It impaled and dragged the monster upward, shattering the USJ ceiling in a massive explosion of concrete, steel beams, and debris. The lance carried it higher and higher into the open sky, far above the facility.
Reaching a safe, extreme altitude, the Lanza de la Resonancia began to destabilize violently—vibrating uncontrollably until the limit—and detonated in a colossal fireball packed with destructive blue flame particles. The explosion ripped the Nomu apart entirely from the inside out, disintegrating it in a blinding blast that lit up the entire sky like a second sun rising unexpectedly.
The detonation echoed like rolling thunder for miles, visible shockwaves and waves of intense descending even to the ground below.
Aoi, watching the sky light up with his handiwork, smiled in deep satisfaction.
"Well, I bet now the teachers back at the school definitely know something's seriously wrong here."
Izuku, still in absolute shock from the sheer scale and power of the explosion, muttered:
"Well, it's literally impossible not to know after something like that."
Tsuyu said calmly but with newfound respect:
"Aoi, now I completely get how you were holding back so much against Shoto in training that day."
Aoi said:
"Well, now that we know external help has definitely seen this massive signal, we should prioritize going to help Professor Aizawa first
Izuku said:
"Yes, let's go—right now."
Aoi said:
"But first, let's heal your injuries properly."
Aoi then touched Izuku's injured hand, channeling his flames gently—the broken fingers realigned with audible cracks, swelling reducing instantly as regeneration accelerated the natural healing process dramatically.
After just a second, Aoi pulled back.
"All done—no more pain. Well, let's go."
Aoi then grabbed Izuku's arm and Tsuyu's arm firmly, ignited his flame propulsion, and rocketed into flight toward Aizawa's location, thinking determinedly: "Professor, hold on just a little longer. I'm coming."