As the Timer on the holographic screen in the skies of Battle Center X dropped by one second, showing 04:59:59, everything came to a halt.
It was as if someone had pressed a pause button on the world.
The audience stared at the massive screens as they displayed a grand view of the central region of the city covered in a reddish hue.
The Pros, acting as Battle Royale's referees, under All Might's lead, stationed themselves just outside the laser boundaries, a heaviness also settling in their hearts.
But more than the audience and the referees, it was the students who suffered the heaviest brunt of the pressure.
Todoroki and Bakugo, who had been fighting against each other for the last 15 minutes, trying to eliminate one of the greatest threats in their opinion, paused, their faces gaining a hideous scowl as they looked at the Timer.
Neither of them was in any state to engage in a prolonged battle anymore.
Ice Age had already eaten a third of Todoroki's stamina. It didn't matter if he had unfrozen himself using his flames. There was no bypassing the chilling effect of such cold temperatures and how the body reacted to it in that moment.
As if that wasn't enough, the worst had happened with Bakugo's arrival at the central region.
Presently, six of Todoroki's fingers had gained a blackened-blue look, as if the blood within them had frozen before someone had smashed them under a ton of weight.
Despite using three Zero Bullets, though, Todoroki had failed to land one hit on Bakugo.
Bakugo had dodged two of them, which ended up blocking two massive roads leading to the central region. The third one… he had taken head-on, countering it with one of his Ultimate Moves. And it was all thanks to his upgraded Hero Costume, it seemed.
Todoroki had never imagined that such a minute adjustment would give Bakugo such an edge.
If he wasn't wrong about it, then Bakugo couldn't have gotten the upgraded Costume more than a few days ago.
Yet, from the way he was using his ankle Gauntlets to propel himself, changing directions even more ridiculously than before, it felt like he had been practicing with them for months!
The only good thing about all this was that… Bakugo fared even worse than him!
…
Katsuki Bakugo dared not feel pain.
Because the moment he thought of noticing the pain, he feared becoming so angry that he just might erupt into an explosion.
How could he have let two weaklings play him like that?
He had walked right into their trap like a moron!
As if that wasn't a matter of utter shame already, he had almost succumbed to it, getting eliminated on the spot.
The only reason he survived was… thanks to Half-Half's ice.
In anger, he had already decided to blow up the mushrooms choking his throat, Bakugo remembered. However, just before he could do that, Half-Half's ice had covered everything in his surroundings, including him.
The ice, which had even crawled inside his open mouth, had faced the full might of his tiny explosion, saving him from severe internal burns.
Even then, most of Bakugo's mouth and his face down his chin to his throat was burned.
It pained him so much that he couldn't even speak properly or close his mouth fully.
As if this pain itself wasn't enough, he had failed to kick Half-Half's ass out of the tournament before the last five minutes as well.
And now, like Todoroki, he felt just too weak to… survive the approaching hell.
…
The central region of the city, within the squarish laser boundaries, was a massive clearing, the size of two football fields.
Presently, it was covered in large chunks of ice and scorched craters, fire lingering here and there over its grassy terrain.
The laser boundaries surrounding the field seemingly had no ceiling.
However, above the clouds, they bent, becoming an enormous cube, giving the final battlefield a definite, laser roof.
As the Timer ticked, one second trickling out of the bucket after another, more students began stepping forward on these hellish grounds.
On one side stood Midoriya, his face carrying a nervous twitch.
The same twitch danced on his left arm as well, his right hand pressed tightly around his left wrist. Even then, one could see something trying to burst out from between his palm and his wrist, glinting black and green.
Not far from Midoriya, with one bare, burned foot and bleeding from the ears, was Tenya.
Somehow, he had managed to survive Jiro's Heartbeat Surround after it had knocked out Mina. Then, taking advantage of her limited range, he had fired his engines to the extreme, closing the gap between him and Jiro, taking her out.
But that had almost emptied him, making him thirst for Orange Juice even more.
Two, barely three… That's how many times he could use his Quirk properly now before technically becoming Quirkless for the time being, Tenya believed.
Far from Tenya and Midoriya, on the opposite side beyond Todoroki and Bakugo, was Monoma… already engaged in a mysterious fight, grappling with a shadow that seemed to come out of him and with a face that almost looked like his own.
Luke, donning orange-black armor, a green gauntlet on his left hand, and carrying a loop of thorny vines on his shoulder, with one of its ends tied to a massive blade, was looking dead at Monoma, his shoulders shaking now and then… as if he was laughing his ass off.
Then there was her.
Momo breathed out frozen air as she eyed the boys.
She could see them looking at each other, not minding her one bit.
She could see it written on their faces that they didn't consider her as great a threat as they considered each other.
Momo didn't mind that.
She had known this would happen days ago…
Her Quirk was awesome, all believed.
But, she? No. She wasn't half as interesting as her Quirk.
So, as the boys charged at each other, leaving her alone, Momo acted on her plan.
She brought around the weapon she had been hiding behind her back, taking advantage of the laser boundary's extreme brightness, and held it with both her arms.
Then, aiming at all and everything, and gritting her teeth…
… Momo pressed the trigger, firing the Rotary Machine Gun indiscriminately!