NOVEL NEXT Chapter 6: Entrance Exam Pt. 1
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"Welcome all to the U.A. Entrance Exam. If you're ready, let me hear you say Oh Yeah!"
"OH YEAH!"
The assembly roared as President Mic took the stage, standing atop a pyramid of speakers that projected his voice, though he almost certainly didn't need them with his quirk, which left my ears ringing.
"Then let's get this party started! As all of you know, there is a practical exam before the written exam. After this, you all will be randomly sorted to a Battle Ground. When the practical exam begins, your job is to take down or immobilize the villainbots scattered about the city. There are three kinds, each worth a different amount of points depending on the threat they pose and how difficult they are to take down. There are also so-called Arena Traps in the form of Zero Point Villainbots; when you see it, and believe me, you'll see it, I advise you to run for the hills. You can try to take it down, but as its name suggests, it's not worth any points, so don't go all out. Also, be warned that these robots aren't sitting ducks. They'll fight back. And I suggest you take them seriously! Also, one last thing: fighting other candidates is forbidden, and doing so will result in automatic disqualification, and you will be blacklisted from UA indefinitely! Now, with that out of the way, let's get this show on the road!"
The assembly roared again as people made their way to the exits where attendees were waiting, ready to tell people their assigned battleground. When it was my turn, I was told I had been assigned to battleground Alpha and given directions. I muttered a quick thanks and nodded before falling silent as I thought about the impending exam.
The last three months of preparation flew through my mind as I reviewed everything I had learned and studied. Only my best would be enough. I didn't have overwhelming strength to rely on; if I wanted to take first place, I needed to be smart, calculating, and efficient.
Before I realized it, I was in the loading room, packed shoulder to shoulder with other eager candidates. The close quarters and barrage of noise might have overwhelmed some, but my focus narrowed to a razor's edge as I closed my eyes and listened to the beat of my heart as it pumped blood through my entire body.
"The Practical Exam will begin in five seconds....five...four...three..."
The distant voice of the PA rang through the room, but I didn't let it distract me as I let out a long exhale, 'Flux on.'
As soon as the thought crossed my mind, my body stiffened. A freezing electrical current coursed through my veins, which swelled and darkened at a visible rate. I embraced the sensation with open arms.
"Three...two...one, the practical examination has begun. You have one hour to eliminate as many Villainbots as possible. Good luck."
A blaring horn rang through the air as the massive gate sealing off the battleground swung open, and people surged forth, eager to establish an early foothold. Quirk by the handful activated, sending their using flying through the air or speeding across the ground.
My eyes snapped open as the veins around my ankles and calves exploded, encasing the bottom of my feet in a thin layer of flux. If one looked closely, they would see that the flux was moving in a jet stream from the front to the back of my foot, creating a powerful propulsive effect.
I bent my knees just in time as I was sent rocketing forward, pumping my arms and legs like an ice skater. I glided across the ground, weaving between the stampeding crowd as little more than a blur.
In a matter of seconds, I was in the front of the pack, and now, without any obstacles to avoid, I channeled even more flux into my feet as its composition changed, making my teeth clench together as my speed nearly doubled.
Increasing my mobility had been one of the first applications I had investigated with my quirk. There were several options, but with my limited capacity and inexperience, I chose a combination of creating a jetstream for propulsion and eliminating the surface friction of my flux, allowing me to preserve my speed indefinitely.
Even though I could have stood still and allowed my perfectly preserved moment to carry me, I continued to pump my arms and legs. These motions helped me keep my balance and maneuver, which I accomplished mainly by changing the direction of the jet stream in increments.
Once I settled into the rhythm, I looked around at my surroundings and realized I was in a faux city. Wide streets lined with towering copy-cut skyscrapers created a maze that required me to maneuver to find any villain bots. Proving my decision to prioritize speed had been the correct one.
As I reached the end of the street, it suddenly ended with a solid wall of skyscrapers, diverging into a path to the left and the right. On a whim, I decided to go to the left, and I leaned back and shifted my hips as if I were coming to a stop on ice with skates, but I didn't slow at all.
From one instant to the next, I shifted precisely 45 degrees, going from a straight line to a sharp left turn. My body nearly scraped the ground as I leaned away to counteract the sudden shift. The feat defied all laws of physics. If there had been even the slightest bit of resistance from the turn, the recoil would have pulverized my feet into dust and most likely snapped my spine in half from the whiplash. But such was the nature of my quirk. If I understood the logic, I could break it and make the impossible possible.
A maddening grin spread across my face as I rounded the corner without any difficulties. Still, I tamped down my unbridled joy as my eyes landed on a group of what could only be villainbots positioned in the middle of the street.
There were five of them, but none of them looked the same, and from my brief glance, I could tell there were two different groups.
The smaller three of the five stood on two pairs of bulky limbs that suspended their relatively small bodies almost five feet off the ground like a chubby daddy's long legs if the insect had an automatic sentry turret strapped to their undercarriage.
The last two villainbots were larger and much more threatening; they also had four legs, but the bots looked more like scorpions instead of a spiders. A comparison strengthened by their wide, flat bodies, two crushing claws, and a curled tail poised overhead that spun idly, much like the sentry turrets of their smaller companions.
'Three One-Pointers and two Two-Pointers,' I thought absently as the villainbots spun to face me. They were covered in dark green armor plating with beady red eyes that flashed as they registered me as a threat. Even from a distance, I could hear the mechanical whirl as their turrets started to spin before unleashing a barrage of plastic bullets.
My eyes narrowed as I took evasive maneuvers; instead of charging forward in a straight line, I began to zigzag, changing direction on a dime back and forth as I closed the distance. The villainbots tried to keep up with me. Still, the programming they used to track moving targets was grounded in reality, something my movements defied, leaving their bullet arcs lagging behind me as I closed the distance without suffering a single hit.
Aiming for the closest One Pointer, I dashed straight at it as my blackened veins pulsed across my body. My mind cycled through the countless designs I had created before locking onto one. The blueprint and schematic practically manifested in my mind's eye as my forearms exploded, flux crawling across my skin until everything below my elbow was covered in pitch-black.
After I addressed my need for speed, my offensive capabilities came next. Using the same molecular structure to eliminate friction, I coated my arms in Flux. However, a microscopic lattice of hexagons was suspended inside the elongated amorphous blob. Each particle was perfectly arranged and completely homogenous, another physical impossibility I had achieved.
The flux around my feet shifted once more, the jetstream changing from horizontal to vertical, propelling me into the air straight at the One Pointer.
I watched as it tilted its body back, trying to aim its turret at me, but I was too fast, arriving in its face and staring into its four pairs of red eyes as I cock my right arm back and my hand curled into a fist.