Cavalry Battle

The Cavalry Battle (騎馬戦) is the semi-final competition of the first year stage of the U.A. Sports Festival.

Rules
Forty-two students qualified for the Cavalry Battle after completing the Obstacle Race. Midnight explains that students must form teams of a maximum of four people: one rider and at least one horse.

Each student is given a point value and a team's value depending on where their members finished in preliminaries. The forty-second place finish is worth five points, with five points added to the point value with each cascading place. The first place finisher, however, is worth ten million points.

Individual point values are added together to reach each team's total. These point values are displayed via headbands. The goal of the game is to steal headbands in order to raise the team's score. Contestants are not allowed to make each other fall on purpose. Even if a team loses their headband or falls down, they can compete until the thirty-minute time limit is up.

Teams
The students are given fifteen minutes to form their teams. Many students in Class 1-A try to join up with Katsuki because he came in third in the first event and has two hundred points. Katsuki ends up teaming up with Eijiro, Hanta, and Mina. Minoru convinces Mezo and Tsuyu to join his team. All the while, everyone avoids Izuku because his point value is too high.

Ochaco decides to form a team with Izuku because she believes it's best to team up with friends. They try to recruit Tenya, but he refuses and joins Shoto's team in hopes of defeating Izuku. Denki and Momo join Shoto's team as well. Shoto explains their roles to his team. Denki is to use his electricity to attack other teams, Momo needs to keep their team's defenses high while insulating them, and Tenya commands the team's mobility. Tenya asks if Shoto will attack with ice and fire and Shoto refutes, explaining he never uses his flames to fight.

Mei Hatsume introduces herself to Izuku and asks to join his team. She wants to use Izuku's fame to her advantage and get her support gadgets attention from the viewers. With Ochaco and Mei onboard, Izuku's team is nearing completion. Almost everyone else has joined a team at this point. Despite this, Izuku finds the missing piece for his team by recruiting Fumikage. Before time runs out, Neito makes a speech to his team about usurping Class 1-A and stealing the spotlight from them during this event.

Battle
The final countdown concludes and Midnight announces the beginning of the game. All the teams rush Team Midoriya at once. Izuku boldly proclaims that his team will run away, but then suddenly Juzo uses his quirk to soften the ground and force Team Midoriya to sink into it. Team Midoriya escapes by using Mei's jetpack. Jiro attacks them with her earphone jack and Fumikage blocks it using Dark Shadow. Ochaco's quirk gives Team Midoriya increased mobility since she's floating everything other than herself and Mei's equipment.

Team Hagakure quickly loses their points when Neito swipes their headband in the chaos. A free for all ensues while Team Mineta and Team Tetsutetsu try to corner Team Midoriya. Ochaco attempts to flee, but one of her hover boots is caught on Minoru's sticky spheres. Minoru and Tsuyu reveal themselves, hiding on Mezo's back.

Team Mineta attacks using their quirks and Izuku is forced to frantically dodge. He activates the jetpack to free Ochaco, breaking one of the hover boots in the process. Katsuki uses explosions to fly and attack Izuku while in midair. Fumikage is able to block Katsuki's explosion and Hanta uses his tape to reel in Katsuki before he touches the ground.

Seven minutes in, Team Tetsutetsu, Team Monoma, and Team Kendo from Class 1-B control the second through fourth place spots. Every other team, save for Team Midoriya, Team Rin, and Team Todoroki, have lost all their points. Even Team Bakugo falls victim to Neito and Katsuki loses his headband. Neito taunts Team Bakugo and explains most of Class 1-B purposely placed low in the preliminaries in order to observe their Class 1-A rivals. At the halfway point of the game, Team Todoroki confronts Team Midoriya.

Ibara steals Team Mineta's points covertly by using her quirk. This prompts Mezo to go into attack mode and rush the two teams. Other teams also attack at the same time. They are all ultimately defeated when Denki electrifies them and Shoto follows up by freezing them in place before stealing their points.

Fumikage is able to defend against Team Todoroki's attack, but the shock causes their jetpack to malfunction. With only one boot propelling them, Team Midoriya isn't fast enough to escape Team Todoroki's pursuit. Dark Shadow attacks and Momo defends Shoto by quickly creating a stone shield. Team Midoriya is forced to the edge of the arena, leaving them nowhere left to run. Even so, Izuku formulates a plan to survive their assault.

Irate from Neito's taunting, Katsuki confronts Team Monoma and attacks Neito straight on. Neito evades Katsuki's blast and copies his quirk before blasting the latter back. Then he copies Eijiro's hardening quirk and blocks Katsuki's follow up explosion. Team Kodai backs up Neito and Kojiro uses his quirk to trap Eijiro by sticking his feet to the ground. Team Monoma flees as Neito continues to taunt Katsuki.

With one minute remaining, Team Todoroki has cornered Team Midoriya. However, Izuku has been able to keep Shoto at bay by exploiting Shoto's refusal to use his left side. Tenya takes control of the desperate situation for his team and debuts his special move: Recipro Burst. In a flash, Tenya speeds past Team Midoriya's defenses and Shoto takes Izuku's headband.

The recoil from Tenya's super speed stalls his engines, leaving Team Todoroki immobile. Fumikage suggests the team try to take other headbands but Izuku refuses because there isn't enough time left. Ochaco encourages her team to get their points back and rushes at Team Todoroki. Inspired by his teammate's cooperation, Izuku activates One For All in his arm and charges at Shoto, forcing the latter to ignite his flames as a defense.

Mina uses her acid to free her team. Neito wants to let the clock run out but Team Bakugo has other plans. Katsuki jumps from his horses and flies at Team Monoma. Kosei creates an invisible wall of air to block Katsuki, but the latter breaks it and grabs two of Team Monoma's headbands. This moves Team Bakugo into third place. Other teams try to capitalize on the chaos and Neito holds them off by copying Kosei's quirk. Team Monoma still holds fourth place and desires to protect their last headband until time runs out.

Even though Team Bakugo holds third place, Katsuki refuses to stop and demands his team fight to get their original headband back from Neito. Mina clears a path using her acid and Hanta pulls their team to Team Monoma using his tape. Kosei attempts to defend Team Monoma with another air wall, but Katsuki blasts through it and takes back his headband from Neito. Team Bakugo moves into second place while Team Monoma loses all their points. Still unsatisfied, Katsuki orders his team to go after Team Midoriya and Team Todoroki.

Izuku uses his quirk to slice through the air and take out Shoto's defense. He uses the opening and takes one of the headbands off Shoto's neck, believing it to be the ten million point one. However, Mei confirms the headband is only worth seventy points. Team Midoriya makes one final push and Team Bakugo arrives. They all prepare to clash when suddenly time runs out and the game ends.

Aftermath
Present Mic reveals the top four teams one by one. Team Todoroki comes in first and Tenya apologizes for leaving them wide open towards the end of the round. Momo reminds him that his special move is the reason their team won. Team Bakugo comes in second place. Hanta is satisfied with moving on, but Katsuki is the furthest thing from content. Surprisingly, Team Shinso replaces Team Tetsutetsu for third place.

Believing himself eliminated, Izuku apologizes to his team. Mei and Ochaco point him to Fumikage, who apologizes for not being able to grab the ten million point headband in the chaos. Even still, Dark Shadow was able to secure Team Todoroki's original headband, giving them enough points to place fourth and advance to the finals.

Shoto berates himself for using his fire, fearing he'll become the tool Endeavor wants him to become. Team Tetsutetsu tries to figure out how they lost, but can't remember how Team Shinso ended up with their points. Shoto confronts Izuku during lunch.

Shoto inquires about Izuku's relationship with All Might and figures out there is more to the relationship than Izuku is leading on. Shoto explains that his connection to Endeavor gives him more reason to want to defeat Izuku. He goes on to tell Izuku about the burn he suffered at the hands of his own mother because of Endeavor's domestic abuse. Shoto proclaims that he will not use Endeavor's fire quirk and will defeat Izuku without it. Izuku feels for Shoto because of his dark past. Despite this, as Shoto walks away, Izuku tells him that he will still do his best to win.