An interlude followed, allowing both audience and participant alike to relax and reflect on the event prior. Some were excited; a General Studies student winning an event? That was something that had never happened before. Many simply refused to accept the idea but for others it held hope. Maybe the hero course wasn't so powerful after all…

The brief break concluded with a cheerleading performance by the girls of Class 1-A, to most people's complete confusion. Despite only lasting a few minutes, one could tell how uncomfortable they appeared doing it, each motion seeming disjointed and haphazard. Shinso noticed however two individuals in the hero course stands that looked to have 'organised' this practical joke, chuckling to themselves, falsely believing none had found them out. Oh how wrong they were.

But before he had the chance to teach those degenerates a lesson, he was unfortunately interrupted by a familiar tannoy: “Could all students please return to the stadium field to await further instructions.” Their punishment would have to wait . How disappointing. Eventually, the participants were once again gathered in the main field. People were on edge; what could possibly top that which just happened? How would they be even able to upstage such an exhilarating premier, especially with only 40 students remaining.

“Now for the second event, what could it be this time?” Midnight commented before spinning the wheel once again. Rotating vibrant colours memorised the crowd for those anxious few seconds. That was, until the wheel grinded to a halt, revealing that the next round was- “A Cavalry Battle!” Midnight exclaimed, encouraging the cheer that followed.

“Students must form teams of four people each: one rider and at least one horse. Each student is given a point value and a team's value depending on where their members finished in preliminary round. The fortieth place finish is worth five points, with five points added to the point value with each cascading place. The person who achieved first place, however, is worth ten million points.”

As if on cue, Shinso felt as if daggers penetrated his back as all the other students turned to him with seething greed for the top slot. He wasn’t a student anymore, he was a target. Despite such a reaction, he appeared externally unfazed by the announcement, though internally was a different matter entirely. He was conflicted; one part was afraid of what was to come, but the other, larger half, seemed even more determined than before. He was eager to beat these overwhelming odds.

Midnight continued: "Individual point values are added together to reach each team's total. These point values are displayed via headbands. The goal of the game is to steal headbands in order to raise the team's score. Contestants are not allowed to make each other fall on purpose. Even if a team loses their headband or falls down, they can compete until the thirty-minute time limit is up."

"You have 10 minutes to prepare, Begin!"

And with that, the search for teammates began. It was quite a struggle at first, not surprising for Shinso, after all he has the ten million-point headband, anyone paired with him would be put in the most danger from other teams. Yet a particular pinkette noticed that he seemed to be wearing one of her 'babies' and swiftly made her way to him.

"Are those what I think they are?! You must be a friend of Izuku's right? Well anyone who is a friend of him is a friend of mine! Let's be teammates!" Mei spouted, ignoring Shinso's attempts to respond. After much internal debate, he agreed for her to join him.

'Well that certainly happened, one down, now I need to find two more…' Shinso thought.

Soon enough, he found his next member: a tall blue-haired kid, looking stiffer than a plank as he marched around. He knew what these kind of people, rule obsessive assholes that were too serious for their own good. Needless to say, Shinso wanted nothing to do with him. However he noticed the engines sprouted from his calves. 

'Could be useful…' Shinso noted.

Shockingly, he joined them with not much hassle, to Shinso's pleasure. Now they had 3 minutes left and one more member was all they needed. This came in the form of a hard-headed kid with quite the peculiar quirk: 'Dark Shadow' which fascinated the insomniac to no end. 

 A team fully assembled, he told them of his plan to maintain victory. Simple, yet effective at the same time. 

'No-one said you had to stay grounded after all'

"Start!"

The announcer shrieked in a manner akin to the first event. As the other teams began to charge on Shinso's, a few began to notice something: why weren't they moving? Regardless they descended upon their position, only to be blown back as the team soared through the air. 

Hatsume's anti-grav boots, in conjunction with Iida's engines, was enough to propel them into the air not unlike a jet, Dark Shadow leading the charge, swiping at the opposing team's headbands as their circled the arena. the only reason they didn't go any higher was the risk of Iida's engines or the grav-boots malfunctioning. Even so, they had acquired an extra 75 points to their total.

"Wow would ya look at that! Team Shinso made themselves into a flying jet! Impressive!" Present Mic exclaimed. "Let's see how the other teams react!" It was evident that the audience felt the same. The coordination required to pull off such a stunt with not so much as a single mishap is huge, yet here's this team of first-years accomplishing that very feat so casually.

This continued for the majority of the match, most teams giving up and assaulting the other, far more vulnerable groups. 10 seconds are left, but something goes awry. Mei's boots stop working. 

8 seconds. Team Shinso is now heading straight for the floor of the arena, Iida's attempts to slow down their descent are fruitless.

5 seconds. Katsuki Bakugou takes advantage of their situation and blasts toward them in a fit of determined rage.

3 seconds. Bakugou is about to reach Shinso's headband. Dark Shadow, weakened by the pomeranian's explosions, is unable to reach Shinso.

1 second. Shinso leans back in a desperate attempt to keep away from Bakugou's imminent grasp.

"Times up!!!"

Hello again, Xavier here!

Been a while hasn't it? Apologies for that, it was mostly a combination of Mock Exams for the past week and Chapter 16 really taking a lot outta me to write. 

Anyways, 25K reads and 900 votes?! Jesus f**king Christ that's huge! I can't thank y'all enough for the support, it's insane how popular this has gotten. When I last checked, this story was sitting at 10k, now only a few weeks later its at 25k! How amazing is that! And now that the Cavalry round is over, we can finally get to where the fun begins: the Tournament! I've changed up a few of the battles to make things more interesting so look forward to that.

We're slowly reaching the finale of Act 2, and boy is it gonna be a big one. Expect the unexpected is all I'll say for now. And until next time, it's your author Xavier, Signing out!