Hundreds of massive icicles left Todoroki's right foot, advancing over the sandy terrain, freezing everything.
As they kept going for the distant figure, they became bigger.
In a fraction of a second, the mountain of ice froze almost half the Battle Site, including the Pro Hero.
Todoroki let out a chilled breath, Momo's eyes widening a step behind him.
For the fourth match, Todoroki and Momo were paired against Sand.
The Battle Site was similar to Tenya and Ojiro vs. Power Loader one, but it also had many broken buildings along with a sandy field.
The entire site was big enough to hold many football fields inside it.
Todoroki and Momo had entered the battle with a plan in their mind.
And freezing Sand with an avalanche of icicles in the very beginning was the first move.
"Let's go!" Todoroki hissed, already turned around. "Run!"
As they were in the center of the site, to run out of the site, they needed to cross at least a hundred and fifty meters of distance.
Sadly, they had just begun running when a massive tremor paled their faces, the entire ground shaking under their feet.
Crack…
Boooooooom!
Tearing through the massive ice structure, Sand came out, riding a gigantic wave of sand.
He was wearing a brown jacket over brown pants, a small smile planted on his bearded face. His brown hair was flailing as he guided the wave of sand forward with the speed of a train.
Todoroki and Momo's hearts gave out.
They knew that the weight bands Sand was wearing on his hands wouldn't matter in this battle.
They also knew that Todoroki's Quirk, which could overpower the toughest Villains, wouldn't matter against Sand. Not here on this sandy terrain, at least.
Sand could control all the sand within a 50-meter range around himself.
Also, he could extend his range to 100 meters if he focused on controlling the sand in one direction.
Todoroki had seen Sand's masterful control over the thinnest strands of sand during the USJ incident.
So, they had considered all this as well.
But they hadn't considered that Sand would be able to break through the ice so fast.
They had barely taken a few steps to run! If it kept going on like this, then they would never win the battle!
Sharing a glance, Todoroki and Momo knew they must go ahead and begin the second phase of their plan — right now!
Momo turned around and began running toward the exit again.
Meanwhile, Todoroki gave up on running and faced the incoming wave of sand.
"… Tell me you aren't that much of a fool," Sand mumbled, the smile on his face flickering.
However, Todoroki did exactly what Sand had guessed. A burst of frost exploded out of his right side and boomed toward Sand, taking the shape of another mountain of ice.
Sadly, it couldn't hold Sand for even a fraction of a second.
The wave of sand he was riding suddenly enlarged.
All the sand from the battle site rushed toward him, the broken structures collapsing as they lost their footing.
In an instant, the wave of sand became a tsunami even bigger than the mountain of ice.
With a crackling hiss, the sand tsunami engulfed the entire ice, and Sand reached the other side, standing still at the top.
"… Is that all you could think of…" Sand began, but suddenly paused, his brown eyes stirring at the sight with amusement. "Oh… Now that's something…"
In front of him, Todoroki was still facing the man from less than a hundred meters away, his right side covered in tiny patches of ice.
However, the field behind him wasn't sandy anymore.
A thin layer of ice sheet had covered everything to the exit, too.
And Momo, who had been having trouble running on the sand, was now skating on it, skidding faster and faster.
"Nice strategy…" Sand nodded. "But… won't work…"
Grrrrrrrrrr...
There was a distinct hum in the surroundings.
Todoroki couldn't even stand properly and fell, before plunging even deeper as if there was a cliff behind him.
With a grave heart, he realized that a gigantic crater had manifested around Sand.
The tsunami of sand he was riding on was becoming bigger and bigger, taking the shape of a man.
In only a few seconds, a titanic sand golem stood tall in the middle of the battlefield, covering the sky.
Todoroki's mouth opened and remained like that, darkness covering everything in his surroundings.
The golem's shadow flickered as it raised its hand, a huge ball of sand materializing in its hand.
"I won't let you!" Todoroki hissed, getting up, realizing what was happening.
With a HISS, an enormous amount of ice burst out of Todoroki, freezing his right side even more.
However, even with the massive output, the mountain of ice was barely able to freeze the lower half of the golem, failing to reach its head, where Sand must be.
The sound of cracks engulfed the entire battlefield as the golem threw the ball of sand, chunks of ice falling off its body.
The ball of sand hurled across the sky and landed in front of Momo, who was mere dozen meters away from the exit.
Booooooooom!
Momo's scream traveled over the sheet of ice as she was thrown back by the sandy explosion.
Simultaneously, the sand golem again pulled back its hand, another sand-cannonball appearing in its palm.
"… Haaaaaaaaa!" Todoroki let out an angry shout.
His right side entirely froze, and patches of ice began appearing on his left side as well.
However, sacrificing his right side also pushed his Quirk to the extreme — the ice covering the golem reached to its neck, freezing the stretched-out arm as well.
From the top of Golem's bald head, sand stirred as Sand walked out in the open, looking down with his dehydrated, sunken face.
"Genius…" Sand praised, smiling. "Which one of you thought of this strategy?"
Sand wasn't mentioning the use of ice.
He wasn't mentioning Momo's running away as well.
In Sand's eyes, Todoroki had become a little sun, flames surrounding him like a cloak.
Then, grinning, Todoroki fired all the flames forward with as much power as he could muster —
— melting all the ice he had poured out till now, soaking the sand wet!
*****************
AN: Original Image of Sand Golem is available
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