8 minutes to go…
Tokoyami panted as he finally took a turn and immediately stopped in his tracks.
Between him and the central region of the city, there was a massive wall of ice, covering all the gaps between the buildings on either side of the road.
The wall of ice was so tall that it reached at least 20 floors.
As if the height itself wasn't an issue, it also had massive ice shards protruding out of it.
Also, the ice wall shook now and then with loud booms, the space behind it brightening with fiery flashes, loose chunks of ice shards falling off.
Tokoyami's fingers balled into fists.
He looked ahead and thought of crossing another block of buildings and taking a different route to the central region.
However, in that exact moment, another figure came running toward the crossroad, coming to a panting, shocked halt as it saw Tokoyami.
It was Shoji, having several mouths, ears, and noses at the end of his tentacles.
Like Tokoyami, Shoji also stared at the ice wall for a moment, all his mouths frowning instantly at the thought of taking another route.
Together, the two boys looked up, their eyes landing on the holographic screen.
Less than eight minutes…
Doing quick mental math, the boys realized that it would take them at least two minutes to reach the central region via another route. But… what if they encountered someone else there? What if they found another ice wall or fallen debris blocking their paths? The number of things that could go wrong was uncountable, and each would only delay them further.
Here, at least, they knew what the hurdle was, with a simple solution.
So, ignoring each other and prioritizing reaching the central region before the laser boundaries jumped right over them, Tokoyami and Shoji turned toward the ice wall and faced the buildings right next to them.
"Dark Shadow…" Tokoyami hissed.
Dark Shadow hissed out from the boy's body and began overlapping itself over him.
This was the Ultimate Move Tokoyami and Dark Shadow had come up with during the Ultimate Move training to deal with their weakness in close combat — Black Abyss!
Not only did Dark Shadow perfectly layer himself over Tokoyami, becoming a living, shadowy armor, but he also gave him an unnatural strength.
Jumping, Tokoyami grabbed at the building, Dark Shadow's claws digging into the thin layer of ice over the building's wall easily.
Grinning, they both looked over their shoulder.
And the grin died instantly.
Creating over a dozen arms, Shoji had already climbed many floors, and he was still going faster and faster.
"Go!" Dark Shadow roared.
Cursing, Tokoyami began climbing the building as well, almost hopping from one location to the next.
In silence—if they ignored the loud booms and hissing noises coming from the other side of the glacier blocking their view—the boys covered half the distance in only thirty seconds.
However, just as it seemed they would be able to reach the central region without any issue, another figure appeared at the crossroads.
Shoji and Tokoyami both paused, their heads snapping downwards.
It was Uraraka, panting so hard that she was holding her stomach.
She looked at the two boys, did some mental math, and came to the same conclusion as them.
But instead of ignoring them and trying to reach the other side as fast as she could, Uraraka began running right toward the foot of the glacier.
Tokoyami and Shoji's hearts skipped a beat.
They instantly realized that they had misjudged the situation.
They had ignored each other because they both wanted to save strength for the fight that would happen beyond the glacier.
Uraraka… she wanted to reduce the number of active students as much as possible, taking advantage of the environment.
Because, unlike them, she might not survive a heavy combat situation.
Letting out angry grunts, the two boys hurriedly began climbing the building. They could literally see the top, their hearts pounding in their chests. Just a few more seconds, and they would…
Sadly, they made the ultimate mistake… of looking back.
And what they saw made them instantly pause and jump off their locations.
BOOM!
Two chunks of ice, as large as small cars, slammed where Tokoyami and Shoji had been and exploded into small bits of ice.
"Hold it!" Dark Shadow screamed, his claw scraping against the ice on the building's wall.
Meanwhile, Tokoyami grunted in pain as all that force was sent straight to his shoulders, ripping off muscles.
Opposite him, Shoji had come to a bloody halt a few floors down as well, flesh ripping off many of his duplicated hands.
That was only the beginning, though.
Dozens of such chunks of ice were lying at the foot of the glacier, even more falling with each explosion because of the vibrations.
Uraraka blurred, as she canceled gravity on all of them before sending them flying in Tokoyami and Shoji's directions.
Booms and bangs rang out as the two boys came crashing onto the floor, painful grunts escaping their throats with an audible crunch.
Meanwhile, seeing her chance, Uraraka grabbed a small chunk of ice and canceled gravity on herself, hoping to throw it in the opposite direction after reaching above the glacier's height, easily crossing it.
Sadly, someone was waiting for her to cancel gravity on herself.
Just as Uraraka's feet lifted off the ground, a figure slid out from the tiny gap between one of the glacier's icy shards near the ground and the building.
The gap was so small that it had utterly gone unnoticed.
Also, it led to absolutely nowhere, as the glacier itself was many meters thick.
However, this figure had been waiting here for the last fifteen minutes, hoping for some daring Class 2-A students to appear and… screw up.
Uraraka's eyes landed on the figure, too, recognizing it immediately.
Monoma from Class 2-B… covered in frozen snot!
Uraraka instantly tried to throw the chunk of ice in her hands toward him, as he could hardly run over the slippery ground near the foot of the glacier.
But, because of a lack of gravity, Uraraka not only missed Monoma entirely, but she also flipped, turning the back of her head toward him, levitating upside down.
"Wait…"
That was the last word Uraraka said…
… before Monoma jumped to grab her hair and slammed her into the ground!