NOVEL NEXT Chapter 71: It was on purpose
As the alarm rang he felt the lack of motivation to even go and watch, but he hoped that there would be something worth it, like fighting or another thing to fail his amusement.
He stood up before stepping through space and appearing in front of the school. The problem was... Where was he meant to go, what did he had to do and similar questions. As he walked throughout the crowded street, squeezing his way around he came to three signs, which read first, second and third years with only the first years having a different navigation, maybe...
He was confused as to what he was supposed to do from now, he followed the arrow, now what? Then he realized that he was in the right place as he saw a door labeled as "1-A waiting room", he entered and greet his classmates. "Good morni~... Huh, good whatever time it is." He said with a bored expression, he had long lost track of time and even if he just saw the time on his phone when the alarm rand, he still forgot as he deemed it as unnecessary information.
He saw on one of the tables as he waited for whatever was about to happen.
After a while of not having social interaction, Ida entered the room with a strong rush of the door. "Everyone, get your game faces on! We are entering the arena soon!" He said loudly and proudly, some people prepared mentally, some were already prepared, and Eth... He just does nothing and looks over to where the voice is coming from. "Midoriya." Todoroki said walking closer to Midoriya. "Hey, Todoroki, what's up."
"From an objective standpoint, I think it's fairly clear thyt i am stronger than you... However, you've got All Might in your corner helping you out, i am not here to pry about what's going on between you two, but know that I will beat you." Todoroki said, the drama was quite the thing as it seemed to provoke Etheral to join in and brew in some more of it. "Nah, that was personal, I won't leave it like that." He said as he put his hands and held himself up on both of them, before turning his face towards Midoriya. "Tell him that you are going to beat him up." He said before pushing himself away from them, his voice was low, somewhat demanding, as he retreated to his seat, he returned to being empty minded. His intervention didn't do anything, the conversation went on Midoriya giving valid reasons on why everyone should do their best, but Etheral took this as the opposite, that he should try doing the worse so he doesn't remove all the fun from the wheel event for himself. As the class walked through the halls towards their designated entrance. Present mic was giving out his radio like speech. Which only became more understandable for the people who weren't in the arena once the kids were going through the concrete halls which were leading straight under sunlight. "Let me hear your screams as our students make their way to the big stage!" He said loudly through the mic which made it only worse.
Then he proceeded to hype up the class with a great introduction, which after he introduced the other classes, it seemed that Eth's class was actually the most special. As the classes gathered another voice was heard.
"Now the introductory is finished..." The students commented amongst themselves if the costume she was wearing was appropriate for a school game.
Eth just stood next to them and listened in before joining the conversation. "She kinda bad though."
"Silence everyone, and for the student pledge... We have Etheral." The woman on stage said. "HUH?" Etheral didn't know what this meant. "What am I supposed to do?" He asked his classmates as if wanting to be passed the answers to the questions of an exam. "Go on stage and speak." One of his classmates came to the rescue as if they didn't the awkward silence would continue. He walked on stage and just stood there.
"What now?" He murmured turning towards the woman, lifting his shoulders, as she was the one that announced it. She just looked at him confused. He took a deep breath before sneezing, blasting everyone in the stadium with one of the most explosive sounds known to man. As the vibration wore off, he just looked around. "Mhhm, the message got through." He said as he walked back to his class in one of most goofed up ways, giggling like a little girl.
"Umm... Without further I do~ its time for us to get started. This is where you begin feeling the pain. The first faithful game of the festival." She said as a hologram of a screen appeared, which was playing a spinning animation before stopping at Obstacle race. "All eleven classes will participate in this treacherous contest. The track is four kilometers around the outside of the stadium... I don't want to restrain anyone at least in this game, as long as you don't leave the course, you are free to do whatever your heart desires. Now then... Take your places contestants!" Midnight said, everyone took their places in front of a gate with three green lights, which one by one turned off. The race has begun as chaos was brought into the small door way. Everyone was pushing into each other. Eth just stayed out of it, and looked at them weirdly.
He turned offhis gravity as he made his way over them, using their heads like stepping stones. "Sorry." He said skipping by them with his hands in his pockets. After a few seconds a wave a cold air was launched created by Todoroki who seemed to freeze everyone's feet. Not all, but enough, Eth stayed out of the frozen group as he had to step back onto the ground, which was slippery.
"..." Etheral seemed annoyed by the fact that he now has to balance better while moving, then an idea struck him, he noclipped his foot slightly into the ground before jumping forward and using the momentum to keep sliding forward as if it was an ice skating.
He was quite elegant in executing his plan, quickly he caught up to Shoto, giving him a mocking tap on his shoulders. "Thanks for the path." He said smiling mockingly before something attempted to strike him down, he quickly rolled in a ball as he saw what it was, a robot from the entrance exam. He lost all the energy gathered as Todoroki skipped forward but was stopped by a group of point 0 villains. Etheral thought of an idea on what to make for this to be more fair than just, RPG and boom exam passed, or he could throw fire salt and cause a lot of chaos but this wasn't the satisfaction he was looking for, he wanted a more skillful attack from himself, just to amuse himself and give off a cool display.
So, he had an idea, an organiweapon, two gauntlets. Which woudl cause an explosion upon hits that won't hurt the user. So he quickly made them out of nothingness and blocked an incoming attack before giving a counter attack, causing the robots scraps to fly off and him, to fall back as he wasn't in a good stance for this. "Woah!" He stumbled back impressed by the fire power this gauntlets have, he never gave specifics for them but this worked quite good, he stood up as he saw the robots stumbling forward towards them. He jumped backwards through reality and reappeared on the other side away from the impact zone, yet he felt the grounds shaking. He could just do some funny stuff and finish in first place, but he wanted to just see how things would go, since Todoroki was alone, no interaction was needed there... Unless. "Ey Todoroki, think fast." Etheral said as he appeared right besides him before throwing a punch which didn't make an explosion but instead a vibration which was like a Shockwave.
Todoroki quickly dodged and took hold of Etheral's wrist before his whole body suddenly was frozen in ice. It was really cold, but he continued on, Shoto by now left him behind frozen in one place. "... So... He wants me out the competition to have a chance at winning..." Eth murmured to himself his breath heavy as his chest didn't had much room to expand. His mind came back to its senses as Eth just allowed himself out of the trap, he took it quite personally, but he didn't care for it.
He walked all calmly as if it weren't a race, like his classmates said there would be more than one event. So why would he push himself to perform like a normal person in all of them. He wanted to enjoy himself, not pretend like he cared for this competition. People passed by him, questioning him in their minds and scratching him off the list of winners. Yet neither of them realized that he could end the meaning of the competition with a single action. "What is he doing?" The commentary yelled out to him. But he ignored it and continued walking, until he reached a strange looking hole in the ground, with pillars. He looked at the people who were thinking about what they were supposed to do, and he just walked past them and looked into the hole. It was pretty dark down there. He wondered how deep it was.
He could do his trick and just skip by it, but that was too boring by now, so he thought of another way. 'I wonder can I fly?' He asked himself as he made the connections he can change his own gravity so why not change his momentum too to move around. "Yeah, that would be funny, just floating out of nowhere..." He said as he felt a sudden rush of happiness, he smiled before saying out loud. "From now on, I devote my life to doing things that are too easy in the funnies ways possible." He said pointing at the sky, his voice held determination in it.
And so he allowed himself to float, using a portal to add the sound effect of angelic chores, being the ones from level 105. He slowly ascended towards the sky with opened arms, before he rotated weirdly with 180° and flew forward, before landing on the other side of the gap in the strangest way possible, being the one that looks like a shitty animation.
To the confusion of everyone, this actually made them question if what they were seeing was even real. He smiled as he did cause confusion just like his old safe. "Oh those were the days." Etheral said giving his voice a old film filter, just for the occasion. Those were things he wasn't sure he can do by now, but he now believed that he could do anything so it kinda didn't matter questioning it now...
He walked forward through space giving off the effect that he is creating after images before he reached Todoroki. "Hey man, how's the race treating you?" Etheral asked, he was keeping up right next to him looked forward. Shoto didn't know what to make of this so he attempted to slow him down, but failed as Eth just said "Good talk." Before speeding up the process seeing what was up ahead, a mine zone. "And Etheral is taking the lead!" The commenter said.
Eth just walked on the mines like it's nothing, and none of them even exploded, giving the impression that this obstacle wasn't dangerous.
One fool took the bait and got themselves flung into the air, and Etheral just watched from the other side as if they won't surpass him. "What is he doing?" Present mic asked loudly on the speakers as everyone were confused as to why he wasn't taking the victory. Yet none of them knew that this was never his motive. He helped the guy who was about to hit the ground, and allowed them to land fairly safely. A loud bang was heard from the back line of the obstacle a huge explosion. He looked over it and saw Midoriya riding a steel plate from one of the robots towards the finish. There was a big fight between the three in the lead without counting him, Bakugo, Todoroki and Midoriya.
Eth just watched as Midoriya made quite the show, causing another explosion with a well timed intentional set off on the mines, sending himself forward past Etheral who just watched over everyone else. "No, Etheral threw his lead away, is this over confidence, or something else. Either way we will know that in the other rounds." The commentary continued, but this was already getting old. And Eth's devotion to this comedic life slowly faded as he just walked towards the finish line, made of the other students passed him, but he also made it there. In the end he was 41st place.