NOVEL WEB 82 – Proverbs 29:23
Proverbs 29:23
One’s pride will bring him low, but he who is lowly in spirit will obtain honor.
Since his wings were still broken, James' maximum speed was limited. He dashed towards the Nomu and joined the fight between it and All Might.
Rather than going for hard attacks that might risk his own safety he weaved between the two hulking beings. He circled around All Might and ducked under a swing from the Nomu to land a striker against its abdomen. Just like before and with All Mights efforts the strike did virtually no damage to the Nomu, but the flames stuck to it again and started slowly spreading and consuming its very flesh.
Before it could react James skipped backwards avoiding its swing for him by a hair. He smiled watching the fire take hold. There was an odd sense of satisfaction.
All Mights eyes widened as he saw the fire work unlike his punches. "Good work young Busujima," he said.
He kicked things up a gear to capture the Nomu's attention even more. Between the pain from the purple black flames and the annoyance of being peppered by All Might's blows it quickly forgot about the little ant that punched it.
James stuck back circling the two of them until he saw another opening and dashed in to close range once again weaving between their clashing arms to get a strike in on the Nomu's exposed back.
This continued for a while until the Nomu was covered in many small fiery patches that just kept spreading. The fire on it's face finally reached its brain causing it to lose what little control it still had as it started spasming and swinging around wildly even landing blow on itself.
Tomura started scratching himself even more vigorously. "How is this possible Kurogiri?!" He screamed.
His nails started growing bloody as he broke skin. "The plan was perfect, All Might should be dead!" He continued.
Kurogiri seemed to be distracted, but answered after a few moments to recollect himself. "I think it might be best if we retreat. If it was just the boy even with those pesky flames the Nomu could easily catch him and end things, but All Might is making that impossible. Between the two of them I don't think a single Nomu will last much longer," he said.
Tomura suddenly stopped scratching and calmed down again. "Oh... right. Let's do that," he said in a defeated tone.
Good, I'll open up a portal," Kurogiri said.
He quickly expanded the black smoke that he seemed to be made up of.
Tomura and a few of the villains close enough to make it to the portal in time escaped through it before it closed, cutting off any possibility for pursuit by the heroes.
Unfortunately for Tomura he had to leave behind the Nomu to hold back All Might and James or they likely wouldn't have been able to escape at all.
All Might grimaced, but he couldn't ignore the Nomu. If he did it might attack James or worse the other students even less prepared to handle it. He couldn't have the death of on of his students on his conscience.
James smirked. 'Good. The Nomu is already on its last leg and now that Tomura and Kurogiri have left the chances for any surprises is almost zero,' he thought.
All Might glanced over at James who had already schooled his expression. "Let's finish this Busujima-kun," he said.
James nodded back confidently.
All Might dashed for the Nomu and unleashed a flurry of punches to the abomination that was barely able to hold on to its last shred of sanity that was burning away with James' flames.
All Might focused on creating openings with his blows that James could take advantage of by nimbly weaving between them leaving quick strikes before stepping back out of range before he could be countered.
The purple blue flames kept growing ceaselessly no matter how slow once added and had already reached almost half of the surface area of the Nomu when it stopped finally stopped fighting instead dropping to the ground where it kept twitching as the fires spread. By that point even its screeches had run out.
Shota who had been barely holding on in case his help was necessarily slumped to the ground powerlessly.
All Might carefully lowered his stance, but kept a watchful eye on the Nomu just in case. "Can you remove the flames?" He asked.
James shook his head. "If I remove them its healing would simply cause it to recover again. Also I only just found out about this aspect of my Quirk during this fight. I can barely summon it let alone control it yet," he said.
All Might didn't look too happy about it, but nodded solemnly.
Finally the rest of class managed to make their way down the stairs and past the last remaining villains to reach them.
Thirteen ran and kneeled down by Shota. "Are you ok?" She asked worriedly.
Shota nodded. "I'll be fine. Hopefully recovery girl can help," he said.
"Once they left communications returned. She should be on her way," Thirteen said.
Himiko ran up and tackled James, wrapping her arms around him. "That was so hot!" She shouted.
Momo, though not as eager as Himiko, couldn't contain herself either and hugged him tightly from the other side.
"That was crazy!" Eijiro shouted.
Mina hesitated looking at James and the two girls hanging off him. "A-are you ok?" She asked.
James smirked. " Of course," he said confidently.
Most of the class didn't dare to come too close given that the Nomu was still writhing on the ground nearby causing them to keep their distance.
Thirteen helped Shota over to where All Might and James were recovering.
She looked at All Might with grateful eyes. "All Might, I don't know what we would have done without you," she said emotionally.
All Might shook his head. "I couldn't have done it without Busujima-kun's assistance," he said graciously.
Given that All Might was acting humble James couldn't be left behind. "No I was struggling to just hold off the Nomu before you arrived," he said.
