NOVEL WEB 33 – Ezekiel 34:12
Ezekiel 34:12
As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness.
Looking at the massive walls and gate in front of them everyone was stunned by the scale of it all. The school had actually built a huge replica of multiple block of a large metropolitan city and there were 7 of such battle centres on the campus. It was hard to fathom how much time and effort was spent building and maintaining such facilities and all of that for a high school.
James smiled at Tsuyu and Toru who already seemed like they had become great friends over the short trip here. “Good luck you two, I'll see you later,” he told them and gave them a friendly hug.
Tsuyu looked rather unfazed while Toru got very excited, but both were sporting a blush after being hugged.
“You too,” they both answered simultaneously causing them to break out into a giggling fit reducing their nerves.
“I won’t be needing it, but thanks anyways,” he told them with a playful smirk.
After giving everyone a chance to adjust themselves they could hear Present Mic from the distance “Okay, start! What’s wrong? There are no countdowns in real fights! Run, run! The die has been cast, you know!” he yelled at the top of his lungs.
Before they knew if the humongous gate had already swung open and everyone rushed in wanting to gather as many points as they could.
James didn’t seem as rushed as everyone else instead unfurling his large black wings and flying past them all as if it was the easiest thing leaving some of them stunned by his speed.
It didn’t take him long to run in to a few of the one point enemies which were some green robots with two arms equipped with guns loaded with rubber rounds and balancing on a single wheel for motion rather than legs.
Wanting to portray the image of someone with potential rather than someone who had already been training for over a decade and was used to active combat he decided to take them on mostly with brute force. He swooped down at them before wrapping his wings to shield himself while simply smashing through them with his momentum leaving them in pieces.
The only thing the teachers would be able to tell was that he could fly and was rather durable. He wanted them to think he was a diamond in the rough that they just needed to polish.
It only took him moments to dispatch the entire group before the other participants behind him could even catch up and partake in the battle to score points.
He immediately took off up above the buildings to get a better view of the battlefield. Something most of the other competitors couldn’t do slowing down their speed at gathering points.
While passing one of the high-rise buildings he noticed a group with Hanta and Mashirao fighting a group of the scorpion-like 2 point faux villains and the tank-like 3 point faux villains struggling to defeat them.
Paying closer attention he noticed with the current momentum of their battle even if it was close they would probably eventually win the battle. He was struck with an idea. He could influence who was in his class or even the school by helping them get more points or taking them away from them during the test.
Thinking of the classes he remembered from canon class 1a was way too sausage heavy for his taste. Almost three quarters of class 1a was men and if he were judging from their performance during canon there were actually students in class 1b and even some in 1c with stronger performance than some of the weaker members of class 1a.
Hanta and Mashirao being prime examples. There were actually two girls in 1b that covered the same niche that they did, but were actually better at it and most of all they were hot girls. They were simply better in every way at least in James' opinion.
Itsuka Kendo with her improved arms for example would be much better than Mashirao Ojiro who just had a stupid tail and liked martial arts. They are both simply close range martial focused heroes, but Itsuka has more potential with her quirk for fulfilling that same niche.
Meanwhile Ibara Shiozaki can restrain enemies just like Hanta Sero, but instead of Hanta who is limited to two pieces of tape to restrain enemies she can summon a ton of plant vines to achieve the same and with the thorns she can have on the vines she can even use them to inflict additional damage. Both of them are most useful as crowd control, but Ibara simply far exceeds Hanta in this aspect and even in other aspects.
There were some others he would happily eliminate from his class. He wouldn't mind eliminating Minoru Mineta, Koji Koda and Mezo Shoji too if he could.Unfortunately they weren't in his test group making him unable to affect their scores. The most he could do influence the ones that were there with him. The girls got a pass even if they were a little too weak in his opinion. Who didn't like some eye candy after all?
He smirked thinking it would be much better if the two of them received far fewer points and he would get some points at the same time. He couldn’t see any downsides and quickly swooped down finishing off all of their enemies.
“Hey, are you guys ok? You seemed to be struggling,” he said with a concerned expression as if he was actually worrying about them and decided to save them. He would maintain his image and possibly even get some rescue points if the teachers believed he was saving them. He would milk any action he took for as many benefits as he could get of course.
"Uh...uh yeah, thanks I guess," Hanta Sero said after he caught his breath.
James simply nodded at him with a confident smile and took off again to look for more targets. No need to waste any more time with these losers. Meanwhile he had stolen over 24 points from their group.
“Six minutes and two seconds left!” he heard Present Mic shout over the speakers.
While engaging another group of faux villains he noticed Bakugo running towards them intent on stealing his kills.
'Arrogant little brat, let's teach him a lesson,' James thought watching him approach.
"Bastards, take this," Bakugo yelled while using his explosions to propel himself forward and attack them faster. Before he was able to get in range to blow them up though James flew over bitch-slapping him with one of his wings sending him back and rolling on the ground before turning to destroy the few villains left before Bakugo could even get back up.
James considered whether he should screw Bakugo over like he had Hanta and Mashirao, but decided that although Bakugo was an annoying asshole at least he was a talented annoying asshole that had his uses so he let him off, at least for now.
"You bastard. How dare you?" Bakugo yelled before noticing James had ignored him and already left as if he was a bug he could just slap aside without a care.
"Watch your back! I'll get you!" he yelled after him.
