Exam Pt. 4

As the hurricane force winds died down Kenji lowered his defensive wall and looked to see what had nearly blown them away, only for his eyes to widen in shock, "Fuck." 

With a small flap of its wings the massive gryphon perched itself atop the iguana's corpse, its massive yellowed clawed feet sinking into the scales effortlessly. 

"HOLY SHIT THAT'S A BIG ASS BIRD!" Toga shouted at the top of her lungs, still deafened from the iguana's point blank roar. 

Kenji's head whipped around to glare at her but the damage had already been done. With a surprisingly high pitched chirp the gryphon's massive eagle eyes narrowed in on them as it cocked its head to the side. 

Kenji froze as he stared down the Dreadbeast, its massive body, rippled with muscle underneath a coat of golden brown feathers. The monster walked on all fours each foot tipped with foot long claws and a black hooked beak that looked equally as sharp. 

"Uh what do we do now?" Toga asked thankfully at a normal volume as she stood stock still afraid that any sudden movement would set the beast off. 

Before Kenji could respond a chunk of concrete flew through the air sailing over their heads and smashed into pieces against the gryphon's chest. Unphased the quadruped eagle reared back onto its hind legs as it roared and unfurled its massive wings that momentarily blocked out the sun. 

Toga whipped around to glare at the group of people standing behind them, "REALLY?!" 

The griffin screeched before falling back onto all fours and breaking out into a reckless charge, tearing up the concrete with each step as its claws sliced through the pavement. 

'Shit,' Gritting his teeth Kenji slapped his palms against the ground sending a tide of clawing darkness. Undaunted, the gryphon continued to charge forth only to stall as it sunk into the umbral pool. Still the powerful creature couldn't be fully stopped and it started to struggle against the abyss pulling its feet out from the trap. 

Kenji's chest heaved as a sharp pain stabbed into his head as he continued to channel the abyss through his body, "I don't know how long I can hold this thing!" 

Ever since he had awakened his quirk Kenji had experimented for days on end trying to figure out the limitations and capabilities of his innate gift. It took a bit of figuring out and a surprising amount of math, but with two months dedicated to preparing solely for the exam Kenji eventually pinned down exactly how his quirk functioned. 

[Queue JJK Technique Explanation]

As best as Kenji could explain it, 'Vessel of the Abyss' allowed him to manifest a limited amount of the otherworldly dimension in the physical plane and shape it as he desired. When channeling the abyss Kenji could manipulate its physical properties at will with very little effort. But there was a hard cap to the maximum amount Kenji could summon, just enough to occupy five cubic meters.

There was also an interesting property that Kenji discovered during his training. When he conjured the abyss, Kenji could manipulate how it occupied physical space. In practice the ability functioned a lot like a bag of holding with Kenji being able to create isolated pocket dimensions. But at most the space inside could only be five cubic meters minus the abyss Kenji used to create the opening. Fortunately there wasn't a limit to how many pockets Kenji could summon at once or what dimensions they could be shaped into. Which is why the griffin was currently sunk two inches into the ground, while only a slim film of abyss covered the ground. 

This aspect of manipulating space was what also made Kenji's void armor potentially the perfect defensive technique. When his armor was active Kenji could effectively increase the distance between his body and any attack he received. 

If someone punched Kenji and he managed to block it with his void armor, even after the attack made contact, the physical force or energy still had to travel through the pocket dimension before it could do any damage. The more abyss Kenji channeled into his armor the more distance traveled and the less direct damage he took.

Which is why even if Kenji could cover his entire body in void armor it wouldn't do him any good as the added space in between him and the blocked attack would decrease with every additional square inch of space covered. 

[Okay back to the fight] 

Whirling around Toga sent a death glare towards the crowd of bystanders, "Don't get shy on us now, one of you started this now we're all going to finish it!" 

"If any of you run away I swear to god I'll hunt you down myself!" Kenji screamed at the top of his lungs as a trail of blood streamed down from his nose and a vein throbbed across his forehead. The griffin roared as it finally managed to rip itself free from the abyss with a flap of its wings sending it flying into the air. 

Ripping his hands off the ground with a gasp, Kenji reached up and wiped the blood from his nose, "Well there goes our window of opportunity." 

With another screech the griffin soared high into the air until it was almost out of sight before folding in its wings and dropping like a feathered missile. 

Preparing to conjure another barrier, Kenji wondered if he had the strength left when a new set of footsteps reached his ears. Turning around, Kenji's eyes widened as he recognized the person running towards them. 

"I don't know if I can do much, but I help out in any way that I can!" 

Kenji grinned as he stared up at the brunette girl with two permanent blush marks on her cheeks, "What's your quirk?" 

"I-it's called Zero Gravity. I can eliminate the effect of gravity on anything I touch." The girl stammered out.