A Tarnished Hero

Shota was beginning to think that his teaching habits were coming back to bite him in the ass.

He launched his capture scarf at one of the charging villains, noting the man having a mutation quirk due to having scales on his arms and a larger than average body. The durable scarf wrapped around the villain's arm and Shota gave it a good pull, not that it did much because of the strength gap between the two.

But it was enough to change the trajectory of his punch. Shota's goggles narrowly avoided the scaly fist that flew past him. He took the moment of opportunity to kick the villain's groin with his steel-tipped boots. The villain roared in pain, his growly voice raising an octave higher, and Shota delivered the coup de grace - a roundhouse kick to the temple. The villain dropped like a sack of potatoes.

The weakness of all males alike, the balls. Shota always liked hitting them where it hurts. Plus, less chance of the idiots conceiving and leaving more kids to fend for themselves, only to end up as minor villains when they grow up because of bad parenting.

In any case, one villain down, dozens more to go… What was he thinking when he jumped into the fray alone with no backup whatsoever?

Oh right, his students. He really hoped that Thirteen was able to get them out of here before that misty-looking villain he assumed was the teleporter got to them. He just blinked for a moment, and the next, he was gone.

A grave mistake on his part.

Eye twitching, he tilted his head to the side, dodging a sharpened rock flung at him. Quickly directing his gaze towards the offender, said villain went wide-eyed when they couldn't launch any more projectiles with their quirk.

Throwing his capture scarf at them, it wrapped itself around their neck and Shota tugged at the scarf, hard. The villain was sent flying towards him, screaming all the while. Shota may not be as strong as any other hero with strength-augmenting quirks, but even he had a good physique underneath all that baggy clothing.

Clotheslining the villain, their body crashed into the ground, unconscious before they could even utter a single groan.

Another one down, still dozens more to go.

His eyes were already beginning to burn, the familiar, maddening itch intensifying. Every blink sent a wave of irritation through him, but he couldn't afford to close his eyes for more than a fraction of a second.

Of all the demerits of using his quirk, it just had to put a very annoying, yet very deadly problem. A single blink was enough for a villain to turn the tables against him.

That is, if the villain in question weren't total pushovers, which these villains seem to be. All they had on their side were numbers. Quality wasn't a given. So why?

Why stage an invasion against a school meant to teach heroes with such… lackluster villains?

Time passed in a blur, and as it did, more bodies began to litter the ground, all unconscious.

Three.

Seven.

Twelve…

More and more villains dropped to the ground, and the wave of villains was lessening somewhat. But he was getting tired.

Tired, and he sorely wanted to scratch the ever living fuck out of his eyeballs!

His instincts blared at him to dodge to the right, and when has he ever doubted his senses?

Lunging to the side, his feet skidded across the ground as he glared at the villain who had a literal hand as a mask, covering most of his face. The only defining traits he had were his light-blue colored hair and thin-as-twigs stick body.

"23 seconds." The villain uttered, and Shota's fast beating heart quickened some more. "That's how long you can keep your eyes open, Eraserhead."

Shit, he forgot to keep tabs on their leader… Speaking of which, where was that mist-like villain now? He hadn't seen him for a minute or so, and with the chaos unfolding around him, he wasn't able to check back up with the rest of the class.

"Not that it matters." The head villain stood straight up, and the remaining villains that were broken and bruised quietly stepped to the side. "Your quirk evens out the game, but against true strength…"

Out of the corner of his eyes, Shota managed to spot a black blur rushing at him with terrifying speeds. Using his quirk again, he glared at the being, but the blur continued unimpeded.

He pushed his body to its limits, leg pumping as much force as he could just to dodge whatever that thing was, but to no avail.

A single punch to the face left him broken, his body careening through the air like paper doll. His momentum was stopped, however, when the same black blur caught him in the air, before smashing him onto the ground with so much force, it broke the concrete.

At that point, Aizawa was done. His bones were screaming and his muscles crying. The air was thick with the stench of blood and sweat, and every breath he took felt like inhaling shards of glass and needles.

"One tapped like a scrub, Heh. You are nothing, Aizawa." Despite the agony coursing through his body, Shota's eyes remained defiantly open. He refused to succumb to the darkness, his thoughts a stubborn tether to the world of the living, his will aflame and heart ablaze.

To not taste the bitter end.

"Meet the bioengineered anti-symbol of peace, Nomu." The villain looked down on him, and if Shota squinted, he could barely make out a small trace of a grin on his lips. "Now where the hell is the main player?"

Even if he wanted to speak, Shota couldn't. He was in too much pain to even think about moving his jaw.

"Not talking?" The villain's face grew closer and the sterilized smell of the amputated hand gripping onto his face was nauseating. The malicious grin was all too clear now, and it took too much just to even hold his eyes open. "Oh well, let's see if heroes can respawn."

This was it. Shota was always prepared to die in this line of work, but for it to happen here, of all places.

His students, for all their faults during the first day and the following days, had potential. Yes, even that ball-headed midget Minoru, otherwise, he would've transferred him to the General Course on the first day.

It was a shame he wouldn't be there to cultivate them in their next sessions… Hopefully, they would've gotten out of here by now, but if not, he'd kill them a second time in the afterlife.

Hizashi… Poor bastard. First Oburo, now him. Hizashi's not going to be happy.

Closing his eyes, Shota awaited his final end. For a long, few seconds that felt like an eternity, he waited. And waited… And waited… Until he could wait no more and slowly opened his eyes.

Through the haze of pain and agony, Shota's eyes focused on a glint of metal, a towering figure wielding a massive blade. Like judgment from the very heavens above, the figure slashed his blade down, towards the unmoving Nomu.

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Izuku made it just in time to save whoever that was behind him. Just taking a quick peek at the downed figure made him wince.

There were a bunch of times back in The Lands Between that he'd been in the same position as him. Every time that happened, all that awaited him was death.

But even with his broken and mangled body, the man he protected glared defiantly until the end. Even accepted his death with nary a complaint.

That was a true warrior, right there.

His blade slashing down towards the black, giant musclehead, Izuku's eyes widened when the blade just sunk inches into its flesh, and not even a grunt of pain came from the monster.

Body tense, Izuku withdrew his blade and backpedaled, eyes never leaving the towering figure of the monster before him.

"Now who the fuck is this NPC?" A man with a dismembered hand for a mask gestured towards him with an evident scowl. Izuku couldn't help but tilt his head at the sight, but otherwise, it wasn't the weirdest thing he'd seen in his short life.

Izuku didn't dare talk, as uttering even a single word is costly within the heat of battle. Every bit of focus must be directed towards the enemy before him, or even those behind him.

Such is the life of a Tarnished vying for the throne of Elden Lord.

Seeing that Izuku didn't speak, the man sighed and waved his arm around.

"Not like it matters. Nomu, get rid of him." The moment the monster moved, Izuku had to pull out all the stops just to even dodge a single punch from the towering monstrosity. His metal boots skidded across the ground as he desperately tried to put a stop to his momentum. "Huh, able to dodge that? Is this a mini-boss?"

Now the man was spewing out nonsense, but the monster didn't give him any quarter. The more the monster rushed at him, the more Izuku had to expend his energy to try not to get hit.

"Definitely a mini-boss." The man's voice continued to strain on his ears. Quite annoying, actually, treating him like some kind of obstacle to be overcome. "But the records didn't mention any of this…"

"Shigaraki Tomura." Izuku's eyes widened when a familiar looking black portal appeared in thin air. What confused him even more was that it was talking. "Apologies, but a student was able to get away, the heroes will be here at any moment."

Izuku, still stunned at the sudden appearance of the portal, was slugged in the chest by the monster by taking advantage of his inaction. He was flung through the air like a ragdoll but was able to control his fall and tuck into a roll, negating some of the damage.

Kneeling on the ground, Izuku had to quickly move to the right to dodge another punch from the monster that was still rushing at him like a pouncing predator. Its huge fist met concrete, and a loud boom echoed through the area.

Debris flew outward as a cloud of dust billowed outward from the point of impact and Izuku had to squint his eyes as some of the dust managed to get through the eyeholes of his helmet.

Not that it was that much of a problem. He'd had worse.

"If you weren't our ticket out of here, I'd have turned you to dust." It was at that moment that Izuku found himself right in front of the handy man and portal(?) man. "And the mini-boss is still alive, great. Nomu!"

Izuku had enough of this bullshit. He normally disliked using this aspect of power within him because it made him feel… out of control and bloodthirsty, but now wasn't the time to second-guess himself.

The seal on his left hand, usually hidden, glowed bright red, and in place of his left arm, a giant, scaly, clawed appendage emerged.

A brief silence overtook the area and taking that as his cue, Izuku swung the dragon's claw towards the rushing Nomu.

Sharp claws met black flesh, and the Nomu fell. Flesh and muscle ripped and tore, revealing the bones and organs underneath. However, the Nomu never uttered a sound as the giant claw tore through it like paper.

"Huh, would you look at that." The handy man focused his eyes on Izuku. "Didn't think Nomu would've been damaged that much by a mini-boss."

Sensing his nonchalance, Izuku felt his heart beat faster. Wasn't he afraid? Why wasn't he afraid? Is there something he was missing?

His ears caught something… It sounded like… bubbles… Bubbles bubbling, for the lack of a better term.

Glancing towards the source of the sound, Izuku had to pick up his jaw from meeting the ground.

The Nomu was regenerating… And quickly, at that.

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A/N: Gonna release this chap an hour early cuz for some fucking reason, our electricity here keeps on getting blackouts everyday at random times, ranging from a few minutes to motherfucking hours. Hell, it just happened again and it's only been a few minutes since I've booted up my lappy (portable desktop, no battery) to post this chapter.

Also, Bannerlords is fun.

Btw, a question, would y'all be okay for major character deaths? (Storywise, it's gonna have a big impact, so I'm leaning on yes)

Shameless plugs:

patreon.com/IAmGuavaFruitFictionHub (Still no 5 advance chaps for this fic [There's 1 you could read if you head on over], that said I am writing the next chapters right now while posting this)

discord.gg/v9f5kjsfVv (It's quiet... Too quiet...)