MHA Paragon

"You have two weeks. Your main goal is survival, but that's the bare minimum for a passing score. If you want to be on the front lines and in the thick of it, you'll need to kill every Dread Beast that crosses your path to wrack up enough points. Don't think you can kill a handful of weaklings and pass with flying colors. You'll start in the outer perimeter, where every kill is worth ten points. The closer you get to the center, the more points you'll earn per kill. Consequently, the Dread Beasts you'll encounter are more dangerous. Any questions?" 

---

Aizawa's instructions echoed in the back of Kenji's mind as he stood perched atop a tree, surveying his surroundings. As he did, Kenji had to remind himself that the bright, clear sky above him and stretched across the horizon was entirely artificial, the same as the rest of the constructed wilderness. Though the sheer scale of the artificial ecosystem was baffling, just at a glance, Thane could make out several different climate zones, ranging from dense forest, dry, rocky desert, towering mountains capped with snow to a flooded grassland. 

As if sensing the vast wilderness on display, Kenji felt something jostle inside of him. Suddenly, his perspective changed, now showing a tightly woven ball of chains glowing faintly with a purple light in an otherwise pitch-black void. 

Returning to his body on a whim, Kenji held out his hand as his palm split open into a jagged-toothed maw that spat out the sphere of glowing chains that began to expand and unfurl. 

Growing restless with its imprisonment, the Abysal Vulture screeched and threw metal links off its back with a singular flap of its feathered wings.

"Restless, aren't you," Kenji muttered at the avian monster perched on his arm as it ruffled its dark gradient feathers before turning to look at him with its massive eyes, an undeniable intelligence shining from the depths, "I never did get to thank you for helping me deal with those raiders. I have to say we make a pretty good team." 

The vulture cocked its head as if to agree with Kenji before turning to look out on the vast stretch of wilderness, "It's not going anywhere, but I get your point. Still, I should give you a name first....how about Styx?" 

For a moment, Kenji's feather companion seemed to consider the name before rearing back its head and letting out a soul-piercing screech while unfurling its wings in a terrifying display, "I'll take that as a sign of approval." 

With a flap of his wings, Styx soared into the air, climbing higher and higher until he was little more than a speck in the sky. 

Now, with a pair of eyes in the sky, Kenji was ready to begin. With a single step forward, Kenji dropped from his perch and plummeted back to the earth. But a seemingly impenetrable wall of branches, some the thickness of telephone poles, rose to halt his descent. 

Letting his reflexes take over, Kenji felt his body start to move on autopilot. He had noticed that the feat was becoming more manageable with every successful attempt. Kenji was also becoming increasingly aware of his body's fundamental differences from when he had been a being of flesh and bones.

'I don't have a nervous system, or eyes or ears, but I can still touch, see, and hear everything around me better than before,' Kenji thought as he kicked off a branch, changing the angle of his descent to slip through two vertically staggered branches. 

'But the more I distance myself from being human, the more I realize I'm not seeing the light reflected off objects or hearing soundwaves passing through the air. It's something more fundamental than that.' 

Soundlessly, Kenji landed on the ground in a crouch without disturbing a single blade of grass despite his nearly one-hundred-foot free fall. 'It's the laws. It's subtle, but they're there. My two lifetimes as a human are simply influencing how I perceive them. But I can feel it wearing thin... another side of me is looking to come out. The side born from the abyss within me.' 

Before Kenji could contemplate his nature's duality further, a haunting screech echoed inside his soul. Suddenly, Kenji was a thousand feet in the air, soaring on an updraft, looking down at a break in the thick forest canopy where a herd of antelope-like creatures was grazing. 

'I see them,' Kenji replied as he snapped back into his body and rose from his crouched position. From between his shoulder blades, countless strips of dark, inky leather crawled across Kenji's skin-like living tendrils, weaving together to cover his entire body. Once every inch of Kenji's skin was covered, the familiar weight of his tattered robe settled across his shoulders before enveloping Kenji's body, hiding it from view. 

After pulling up the hood, Kenji took off using his connection with Styx as a compass. To any observing, Kenji seemed to move across the uneven, cluttered forest floor like a phantom, leaving no trace of his passing as entangling vines and grasping thistles seemed to slide off of the robe as if the heavy, slick fabric was made of oil. 

As the forest rushed past him, Kenji felt something inside him stir and come to the forefront of his consciousness, a deep hunger that felt all too familiar. But instead of coming from another source, Kenji knew that the origin lay within his very nature. 

Bursting into the clearing in a flurry of motion, Kenji's mind didn't have a single thought as he gazed at the massive herd spread out in clusters. He was moving on sheer instinct. 

At once, every head snapped over to stare at Kenji, who gazed back from the depths of his hood. The herd of Dread Beasts bore a heavy resemblance to deer, but they possessed dark green pelts, three pairs of legs, and were about the size of a minivan. 

Then, before Kenji could act, a deep bellow reverberated through the air, and his head snapped over as the herd's bull made himself known. 

Kenji first noticed the massive pair of antlers emerging from each side of the bull's head, equipped with razor-sharp points and even two scythe-like sections that came around to line the beast's bottom jaw. The following observation was the sheer bulk of the buck, with visible muscles tensing and flexing beneath its thick coat. 

With a snort, the buck moved to stand between its herd and Kenji before stamping the ground with its dinner plate hooves, a clear warning to fuck off. But Kenji didn't budge, and for a brief moment, they entered a standstill, which was unfortunate for the buck as it meant Styx had all the time in the world to aim. 

There was only a momentary streak of dark blue and red plumage before Styx's hooked talons carved the bull's face, sending a fountain of blood soaring into the air. 

The bull reared back as it let out an agonizing bellow of pain, but Styx was rooted firmly in the buck's skin, and with a flap of its wings, Styx steadied itself before its head lanced out drilling its razor-sharp beak into the bull's eye. 

Half blinded and in agony, the bull started to flail about, trying to shake off the feathered terror clawing at its face. But in its panic, the beast forgot about the interloper who had started the fight. 

Gliding across the ground, Kenji's hands flashed out as two daggers appeared in his grasp, and he lunged at the rampaging buck, guided by his seemingly endless hunger.