Shoto Todoroki stood in the center of the ring, which had been reduced to frozen rubble, his breath puffing out as thick white clouds. Frost was beginning to visibly creep up the right side of his body, coating his arm and half his face in a thin, painful layer of ice.
His greatest attack had been shattered, but he refused to surrender. He stomped his right foot on the ground again, sending a series of sharp, spear-like ice pillars rushing toward Madara at varying speeds and from multiple angles, trying to pierce him or at least keep him at bay.
But Madara didn't retreat. Instead, he smiled.
Madara ran straight toward the forest of ice spears. Just as the spikes were about to impale his chest, he raised his hands and formed a quick seal.
"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"
POOF! POOF!
Madara split into three. But instead of attacking directly on the ground, the three clones jumped high toward the ice pillars.
In the stands, Kaminari shouted, "Is he crazy?! He'll slip and fall! The ice is too smooth!"
But what happened next made everyone's eyes widen in disbelief. Madara focused Chakra into the soles of his feet, converting it into adhesive force and propulsion simultaneously. The three clones landed on the sloped, slick surfaces of the ice pillars... and they didn't slip.
Madara began to skate.
He was sliding and running along the ice with terrifying fluidity, turning Todoroki's own attack into his pathway. One clone skated along a horizontal pillar, another ran vertically up an ice wall defying gravity, while the original zigzagged like a shadow, dodging every new wave Todoroki unleashed.
"He's using my attack against me!" Todoroki whispered in shock, trying to track their rapid movements. He fired another wave of ice, but one of the clones jumped over it, using the fresh ice as a launching pad to leap higher.
It was a deadly dance. Madara had turned Todoroki's defensive field into his own playground.
The first clone swooped down from above, delivering a powerful axe kick. Todoroki raised an ice shield, but the kick shattered it, pushing him backward. Before he could regain his balance, the second clone slid in from beneath him and delivered a precise, Chakra-loaded Palm Strike to his stomach.
Todoroki coughed up saliva and doubled over in pain, his limbs freezing further due to his dropping body temperature and the relentless pressure.
Here, the original Madara appeared right in front of him. He didn't strike him; instead, he stood looking down at him coldly as the clones vanished in puffs of smoke.
"Your movements have become too slow," Madara said, his voice dripping with disdain. He looked at the frost covering Todoroki's body. "You are killing yourself slowly out of childish stubbornness. Your body is shivering, not from fear, but because you refuse to use your other half to regulate yourself. You are disgracing the battlefield."
Todoroki gritted his teeth, his left eye twitching. "Shut up... I will defeat you... with just this side!"
Todoroki fired a stream of ice from point-blank range, but Madara dodged it with a simple tilt of his head and drove an elbow into Todoroki's jaw, sending him rolling across the cold concrete floor.
"If you hate your blood that much, spill it here and surrender!" Madara scoffed, his crimson eyes gleaming cruelly. "Power doesn't care about your past or your family. In battle, you either use everything you have, or you get crushed beneath the feet of those who do."
Todoroki tried to stand, his body trembling violently, his vision beginning to blur. The ice was consuming him from the inside. He knew Madara was right, but his hatred for his father bound him like chains.
At that moment, from high up in the stands, one person could no longer bear to watch.
Izuku Midoriya stood up, gripping the railing until his knuckles turned white. He saw Todoroki suffering, saw how he was punishing himself. Midoriya didn't care about being a hero, or who would win; all he wanted was to save his friend from his frozen prison.
Midoriya took a deep breath, and with the loudest voice he possessed, he screamed a cry that pierced the silence of the stadium:
"IT'S YOUR POWER!! ISN'T IT?!!"
Todoroki's eyes widened. The words hit him like lightning.
(My power...) He suddenly remembered his mother's sad face, remembered her warm words that he had forgotten under the weight of hatred: "It's okay to use it... become who you want to be."
Todoroki's body stopped trembling.
Madara, who was advancing to finish the match, stopped suddenly. The Sharingan detected a radical change. A terrifying and completely different energy began to gather in the left side of the collapsing boy.
"So that's how it is..." Madara whispered, and a genuine, feral grin split his face.
FWOOOOSH!!
It wasn't an explosion; it was an eruption. A massive pillar of crimson and orange flame burst from Todoroki's left side, rising into the sky like a tornado of fire. The sudden heat shocked the cold air, causing all the surrounding ice to vaporize in a split second, turning the stadium into a basin of hot steam.
The frost covering Todoroki's body melted instantly. The boy stood tall, his left side burning with a pure, unblemished flame, his eyes shining with unprecedented determination. He had broken free.
In the hero section, Endeavor stood up abruptly, flames erupting from his body in manic excitement, his eyes bulging. He didn't care about the cameras or the audience; he shouted at the top of his lungs, a proud roar that shook the stadium:
"SHOTOOOOOO!! YOU'VE FINALLY ACCEPTED YOURSELF! YES! COMBINE MY BLOOD with YOURS AND SURPASS ME!! FULFILL MY AMBITION!"
Todoroki didn't turn to look at his father. His gaze was fixed solely on Madara.
The air rippled from the intense heat, and the atmospheric pressure in the arena shifted completely.
"Sorry to keep you waiting," Todoroki said, his calm voice now carrying a deadly confidence.
In an instant, Todoroki vanished from his spot. He used the ice from his right foot to slide forward at breakneck speed, while using the flames from his left hand as a jet propulsion from behind. His speed had doubled!
Madara's eyes widened. (Fast!)
Todoroki swooped in and fired a massive wave of ice that forced Madara to jump back, but it was just a feint. The moment Madara landed, Todoroki was right in front of him, aiming his left hand directly at the Uchiha's chest.
"FLAME!"
A massive torrent of fire engulfed Madara. Madara was forced to use Chakra to reinforce his arms and defend, but the thermal propulsion force threw him back several meters, his P.E. uniform beginning to burn at the edges.
Todoroki didn't give him a second to rest. He stomped the ground, freezing half the ring to disrupt Madara's balance, and in the same moment, fired a succession of precisely aimed fireballs.
For the first time in the tournament, Madara was retreating!
The Uchiha was jumping and dodging with difficulty amidst a storm of contradictions: ice attacking his feet to freeze them, and fire attacking his face to burn him. The rapid and perfect switching between heat and cold created violent air currents that made Madara's physical movements—his Taijutsu—extremely difficult.
The crowd went wild. Their hero was regaining control!
Madara blocked a fireball with his forearm, enduring a superficial burn, slid backward, and finally came to a stop. He was panting slightly, sweat pouring from his forehead. He looked at his partially burnt uniform and at the boy standing before him, surrounded by an aura of fire and ice.
Instead of anger, Madara's smile widened until it showed his teeth. His blood was boiling in his veins with excitement.
"Excellent... Excellent, Todoroki!" Madara laughed, a deep sound echoing amidst the fire. "This is the pressure I was looking for! Finally... some warmth worth the effort!"
Madara began to gather Chakra in his chest with immense density, multiples of what he had used before, the Sharingan spinning wildly in preparation for the ultimate collision.