Chapter 15 : Tank and another one
Izuku stood motionless for a single heartbeat, cloak of living shadows billowing around him like a storm given form. His eyes were pure black with glowing neon-blue cores that burned with murderous intent as they locked onto Shigaraki.
Then he moved.
He exploded forward at blinding speed, 50% of One For All surging through his body causing small popping sounds that were quickly fixed, while shadows propelled him even faster. The world blurred around him. Shigaraki's eyes widened, but he couldn't even track the motion, Izuku was simply gone from where he had been standing.
The purple Nomu, however, could see him.
It stepped forward with terrifying speed and swung a massive fist. The blow connected with devastating force, slamming Izuku sideways through the air. He crashed into the stone fountain with a sickening crunch, his neck bending at a grotesque angle. The crack of breaking bone echoed across the plaza.
For a moment, everything went still.
Then Izuku stood up with black veins around his neck that stood out against his skin.
He reached up with one newly reattached hand, grabbed his own head, and snapped his neck back into place with a loud, wet pop. There was no flinch. No grimace. No reaction to the pain at all, as the black veins pulsed with light and he was healed then receded. Then he turned his head toward Shigaraki with the same cold, murderous stare.
Shigaraki's face twisted in fury.
"You're cheating!" he screamed, voice cracking with rage. "This isn't fair! You're hacking! How are you still moving?!"
He scratched at his neck frantically, nails drawing fresh blood.
"All Nomu, attack and kill that cheater! Kurogiri! Bring in more! And get the backup plan ready now!"
Portals began rippling open across the plaza as reinforcements poured through.
Izuku didn't wait.
He raised a hand, shadows exploding outward from him in a massive wave. Every single shadow he could command answered at once. The blue highlights running through them glowed brighter than ever before, pulsing with raw power. The constructs were stronger, more solid, more alive than before.
An additional two dozen foot soldiers rose instantly, forming ranks to handle the swarm lesser Nomu. Five more shadows detached from the main mass, sleeker, faster, then their brothers and rushed straight to Nerissa's body. They gently lifted her, forming a protective ring around her, while carrying her safely behind Izuku's main force.
Izuku's voice rang out, cold and absolute.
"Kill them all."
Igris and Kaelros reformed at his sides, fully manifested once more, their forms reinforced by the awakened power. The three of them charged the giant purple Nomu together.
The fight was immediate and brutal.
Izuku, Igris, and Kaelros attacked from three angles at once. Igris swung his massive sword in wide, powerful arcs. Kaelros dove and raked with claws and shadow-flame. Izuku blurred between them, using shadows to try and smash and damage the purple nomu.
They quickly realized blunt force had almost no effect. The Nomu simply absorbed the impact of their blows showing no damage at all and healing from the slashes. So they switched tactics.
Izuku commanded the shadows on the ground to form razor-sharp spikes and piercing tendrils. Igris shifted to thrusting strikes aimed at weak points. Kaelros used his claws to tear and hook rather than slash while aiming for its joints. Shadows lashed out, wrapping around limbs and trying to restrain the beast while the three of them stabbed and sliced from every direction.
Throughout the entire fight, Izuku kept trying to break away and go after Shigaraki directly. Every time he attempted to slip past, the purple Nomu intercepted him with terrifying speed, forcing him back into the fray. Igris and Kaelros weren't enough to hold the monster off alone. Izuku was forced to focus almost entirely on the Nomu, frustration and rage burning in his glowing blue eyes.
The battle raged on without mercy.
Izuku, Igris, and Kaelros fought as one coordinated storm against the towering purple Nomu. Shadows lashed out like living spears, piercing joints and tendons. Igris's sword carved deep gashes that tried to heal almost instantly. Kaelros raked with claws and shadow-flame, trying to tear the monster off balance. Izuku blurred between them, using every ounce of 50% One For All to strike at weak points with his sword while commanding the shadows to wrap and restrain.
They were wearing it down.
Slowly. Painfully.
But they were winning.
With a final, synchronized assault, Igris swung his massive sword in a perfect horizontal arc while Kaelros clamped down on the Nomu's shoulders. Izuku drove a shadow-reinforced spear straight upward through its neck.
Igri's blade sliced clean through the Nomu's neck.
The purple Nomu's head tumbled free, spinning through the air before Igris caught it in one armored hand. The massive body collapsed to the ground with a thunderous crash, blood sprayed across the tile.
Igris turned without hesitation. He knelt deeply before Izuku, lowering the severed head in both hands like an offering to his king.
Izuku stared at the trophy.
Thick black smoke began wafting up from the Nomu's corpse, thick, heavy, and alive with power. Something inside him reacted instinctively. He raised his hand, pointing at the fallen body.
"Arise."
A shadow pulled itself free from the corpse.
It didn't look like the Nomu he had just killed. Instead, it formed into the shape of a large-built man with a powerful, muscular frame. The only remnants of its previous monstrous form were the oversized build and a prominent beak-like feature on its face. Otherwise, it looked almost… normal. Like a mutant-quirk user, this led Izuku to question if this had been the man's original form and the other form had been twisted into something far worse through experimentation.
Izuku's glowing blue eyes narrowed in confusion and thought.
The newly formed shadow bowed deeply to him, kneeling in perfect loyalty.
Izuku stared for a moment, then spoke, voice cold and commanding. "Do you have a name?"
The shadow shook its head once — no.
Izuku considered it for only a heartbeat.
"Then from now on, you are Tank."
The shadow Tank straightened, eyes filled with acceptance. It immediately moved to stand at Izuku's side, ready for orders.
Izuku didn't stop there. He turned toward the defeated low-end Nomu scattered across the plaza and extended his hand.
"Arise."
More shadows answered. One after another, they pulled free from the fallen bodies, forming into additional soldiers that joined his growing army. The blue veins running through all of them glowed brighter than ever, pulsing with enhanced power.
Only then did Izuku turn his gaze toward Shigaraki.
The villain stood frozen in complete shock. His hand was still raised to his neck, nails dug deep, but the scratching had stopped entirely. His eyes were wide behind the hand-mask, mouth slightly open in disbelief as he watched his own forces being turned against him.
Izuku's cloak of shadows billowed around him as he took one slow, deliberate step forward.
The entire plaza seemed to hold its breath.
Shigaraki then started yelling with raw, childish fury as he watched Izuku, shadows swirling around him like a living crown of darkness.
"YOU CHEATED!" he screamed, voice cracking like an angry child throwing a tantrum. "That's not fair! You're using hacks! You're breaking the rules!"
He slowly scratched at his neck but smiled.
"But you know what?" Shigaraki's tone suddenly shifted — low, venomous, and gleeful. "I have cheats of my own."
He snapped his fingers toward Kurogiri.
A new warp gate spiraled open behind him, larger and darker than the others. From the swirling black-purple mist, something large stepped out.
It was a nomu with a…Hood?
Its body was large, heavily muscled, and wrapped in a tattered dark hood that obscured most of its face. Its eyes glowed with a cold, calculating intelligence that regular Nomu lacked. It moved with deliberate, almost thoughtful steps, head slowly turning as it studied the battlefield — the broken plaza, the scattered lesser Nomu, the army of shadows, and finally Izuku himself.
The Hood Nomu didn't roar or charge like the others.
It observed.
Shigaraki laughed maniacally, pointing at Izuku.
"Go on! Show this cheater what a real monster looks like!"
The Hood Nomu took one slow step forward, its massive frame casting a long shadow across the tile. Its gaze locked onto Izuku with cold, analytical focus, as if already calculating the most efficient way to tear him apart.
Izuku's glowing neon-blue eyes narrowed.
The battle was far from over.