After a few more roars from the crowd, Midnight spoke into her earpiece and nodded at Cementos before cracking her whip loudly.
"Due to the nature of Hado's quirk and Parker's inability to reach her reliably were she to simply fly out of range, the arena shall be slightly changed!"
Slightly changed? What?
...
As he questioned the announcement, Cementos placed both hands on his makeshift throne that connected to the arena, making it rumble before the four pillars at each corner shot up into the sky.
Once they stopped their ascent at around 30 feet up, horizontal segments shot out from them and connected to the ones adjacent, creating what looked to be the frame of a cube.
Well, more like a rectangle but whatever.
Either way, he had things to climb on and swing from now that weren't like 10 feet tall! That meant he actually had vertical mobility now! cool!
Guess he won't be at too much of a disadvantage now, huh?
Looking at it brought him back to the day he did that cage match in New York, one of the first things he did when he got his quirk.
It seemed so long ago, now.
And look where he is now, huh? Reminiscing about his past right before a big fight on national TV!
He could reminisce later, he had things to do now.
"Hey, you kids get the rules? You probably do but I'm forced to ask." Midnight smiled softly, covering her mic.
Both students nodded at her, the woman giving them a thumbs up before speaking into her earpiece.
"No hard feelings when I win, right?" Peter joked, Nejire laughed from her side of the arena.
"You sure you can back up that talk, Peter?" She asked, the boy shrugged.
"I can try, Nejire."
He hoped this thing wasn't a blowout.
"Well, if both students are ready…" Midnight began, Peter's body tensed as he looked around the tall interconnecting pillars.
Needed to be moving as soon as possible, Nejire wouldn't give him a moment to think so he'll have to do it while on the move.
Good thing he was used to that.
"Then let the finals of the Sports Festival begin!" She cracked her whip, both Peter and Nejire were already in the air just as the crowd went wild.
Showtime.
Peter shot a web at one of the horizontal portions of the frame, gripping the line tightly in his hands and pulling himself out of the way of a spiral of energy.
Man, guess they were both going on the offensive.
As he launched into the air, his lenses landed on the aftermath of where her blast hit, seeing the small section of the arena that got turned to rubble and a cloud of dust.
It wasn't an explosion, it was an impact
That was a thing Peter needed to remember, Nejire's energy blasts weren't lasers that made things explode, instead they were more like energy shockwaves.
Energy shockwaves which seemed to be composed of physical energy, which then meant they had mass.
Overall, they hurt.
At least they didn't burn, didn't need too many Endeavor flashbacks.
The masked teen twisted his body around another blast of energy, shooting a few webs at his opponent with one hand while shooting a web at the pillars with his other.
Nejire flew out of the way of the webs, giving Peter enough time to swing up and stick to the side of the top part of the structure.
Alright, getting up to her level wasn't as hard as he thought!
The girl narrowed her eyes at him, Peter climbing up to the top just as she began charging up a spiral of energy with both hands.
"Output level 40…" She muttered, Peter's eyes widened as his spider-sense began ringing.
Staying up at her level might be a different story, though.
Crap.
"Nejire wave!" Peter began running just as two shockwaves completely wrecked where he was just standing, the boy flipping out of the way as the girl flew in close and shot off smaller blasts.
All around him, yellow energy cracked the stone he was standing on as he ran and flipped in an effort to dodge the girl's attack.
Time to go on the offensive, then! He'd have to do it sooner or later.
But doing it now was way better than when he was backed into a corner, you know?
Using the ground as a springboard, he shot up into the air with a kick that Nejire barely dodged, the girl attempting to grab his foot just as he twisted his body.
"Can you at least not fly around, man? I don't know if you noticed but I can't do that!" Peter yelled, shooting a web that covered Nejire's eyes.
But seriously, did she have to fly? So not fair!
"I will when you stop trying to web me!" She yelled back, ripping off the webs from her face and shooting another series of small blasts at the boy.
Spider-sense ringing, Peter backflipped out of the way of energy waves that destroyed the stone, shooting a few webs at Nejire while in mid-air.
Needed something fast, something she couldn't react to and dodge!
Building a little momentum would help him out, huh? And besides! It worked last round!
As he fell, Peter shot a web at a section of still-standing stone and began to swing downward in an arc.
Once he reached the apex of his swing, Peter let go of the line and flew towards Nejire with the same velocity before narrowly missing.
Or that's what he would say if he meant to collide with her straight on.
Nah, he was taking a less predictable approach.
The boy soared past her, extending out his hand at the last second and grabbing onto her forearm, sticking his hand to it and bringing her down along with him.
There was no way Nejire could just ignore his momentum and stay in the air, she'd get dragged with him!
Basic science!
Man, he loved it when his nerdy days helped him out in fights.
Nejire tried to shake his grip, quickly realizing his hand was stuck.
"Will you quit sticking to me, Peter!?" She yelled, still trying to free herself.
"I will when you're out of bounds! For now? You're along for the ride!" He grinned, both of them quickly approaching the ground.
Once he stuck to the floor, no way she'd be able to fly away! Then all there'll be left to do was throw her out of the ring!
It was a perfect plan! Noth- why was his spider-sense ringing?
Turning his head, he was nearly blinded by the glow of a point-blank spiral of energy right in his face, Nejire grinning as she held the golden energy in her free hand.
...
Oh, boy.
That, uh.
That wasn't good.
The red of his mask was contrasted by the golden glow, his lenses going as wide as they could go.
Yep, not good at all.
"Hey, could you… not do that? I kinda use this head to wear hats and I'd be really sad if you blasted it off." Peter tried, a nervous chuckle escaping him.
Next to him, Nejire only grinned wider.
Eh, worth a try.
The stadium roared as Nejire shot the energy wave directly in Peter's face, the boy immediately letting go and flying across the stadium before crashing to the ground while kicking up smoke and debris.
"Ow…" Peter muttered, unable to see anything inside the cloud of dust.
All he knew was that his face freaking hurt.
A lot.
He sat up, hissing at the soreness in his body before reaching up to touch his lenses.
Shattered, not only that but it seemed like the shutter system got damaged in the fall.
Basically useless now. Great.
Now he had to make spares of the new model.
Taking them off, Peter sat inside the cover of dust and smoke for a second, catching his breath as the crowd roared and cheered all around him.
He… needed a good plan right about now.
Like, a really good plan.
"Y'know, you can always throw in the towel! No hard feelings if you're the kind of spider that gets squished!" The voice of Nejire came from outside the smoke, along with the hum of her quirk.
There wasn't an actual hostility in her voice, more like playful banter between friends. That fact made Peter smile a bit under the mask.
Man, it even sounded like she was having a ton of fun right now.
And honestly? Peter was starting to have fun, too.
Not too much given how he was in a lot of pain right now, but the fun was still there!
...
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