Book 1, Chapter: 22

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The opposing team looked at our rearrangement of players and laughed. They seemed to be confident that without our previous tough defense, they could easily score as many goals as they wanted against us.

"Do you think this is really gonna change anything?", the assholes' midfielder, the man with jewels in his teeth and the apparent leader of the group, questioned Ike as we were getting to our positions. "Or are you just running away? Scared of getting yourself a little hurt in a game? Typical of you, Strike. Always scared."

Ike didn't reply, and I had to say, I was a bit concerned with all of that. He was quite a pacifist, even more reluctant in using force than I was, but those guys weren't playing fair…

I could only trust Ike.

The game began, and the face-off for the ball too: the opposing team didn't waste any time, and already tried to cheat by purposefully trying to nudge me in the ribs and steal the ball from me. I endured the hit without feeling as much as a little poke, and replied in kind, hitting the opposing midfielder on his ribs, and sending him to the ground, out of air.

I dashed across the field, and passed the ball to the awkward swordsman, which easily intercepted the ball. The opponents' defender, however, tried to stomp Ike's foot to steal the ball. And he replied in kind too, not only easily avoiding the attack, but also raising his lacrosse stick up as fast as he could, and hitting the opposing defender right on his groin.

"What?!", the assholes' goalie asked, astonished, as the ball passed by him at high speeds, and marked a point for us.

"…Goal", Ike said, staring the Hook right in the eyes.

When I looked at Ike's eyes, I knew it: the game then was another one. And we wouldn't lose it.

The game hadn't ended yet, however, and then the already cheating, distasteful opponent team seemed to have doubled down on their disgusting methods. Their goalie threw the ball back to his midfielder, but the defender beside Ike pretended to try to get the ball himself, and tried to hit Ike in the head with his lacrosse stick, for which the awkward swordsman did the same, and with his much superior agility, bashed his opponent in the head first.

I jumped up and caught the flying ball before the assholes' midfielder without much trouble, and hurled it back to Ike, who dashed across the opponents' field relatively unimpeded, as their defender was still stumbling and holding his hurt head, and getting as close to the goal crease as he could, he shot the lacrosse ball as hard as his muscles allowed, getting it to hit the goal's net, and scoring us another point.

Restarting the match once more, once more there were stomps, kicks, nudges, and pokes exchanged in equal measures, but Ike was much faster and agile than our opponents, and I could simply brush off most of their underhanded tactics. Meanwhile, Spruce didn't even need to move, as the enemies rarely could get to him.

With their faces red, cheeks puffed, and bulging red eyes, the assholes were starting to lose not only the game, but their minds too, for even with their increased amount of faults and less and less care about being caught breaking the rules, they couldn't strike a single goal against us.

"Fucking hell, Ninebark! We're losing because you keep distracting us with that disgusting breathing of yours!", the opponent midfielder screamed, spitting all over the field.

"I- I'm sorry, master! I'll stop breathing immediately!", Ninebark replied and covered her mouth with both hands. She actually even started to turn blue from holding her breath in for too long…

At that moment, Ike looked with distress at the bumbling girl losing her color and, distracted, lost the ball.

I tried to intercept the ball, but it had been thrown way too high up for me to naturally reach it, and it fell right into the opponents' attacker, which stroke a goal.

"Yes!", the opponents commemorated.

Spruce threw the ball back to Ike, but right at this moment, Ninebark fell down, fainting because of the lack of air, and the awkward swordsman didn't manage to catch the ball, distracted by the image of the falling girl. Our adversaries didn't waste any time, and took full advantage of that situation, scoring yet another goal with the same technique as before. And worse: the bullies seemed to notice something.

As soon as the little person threw the ball to me, and I tried to pass it to Ike, the adversaries' midfielder shouted: "Ninebark! Slap yourself, now!"

"Yes… master!", the ugly girl replied, getting up and breathing with difficulty. "Slap!", she hit her face with her own palm, leaving five red fingers behind on her cheek.

And Ike lost the ball again.

The game scoreboard was 2-2, and Ike's fate was on the line, so there was no way I would allow that to continue: I crouched down, contracted my leg muscles, and jumped up, catching the ball some four meters above the ground with my stick. I passed the ball back to Ike, but as he was advancing toward the goal, the midfielder shouted again: "Ninebark! Bite your finger until it bleeds!"

"No!", Ike turned around to look at the girl, and shouted back, but it was too late, she already had four fingers in her mouth, and blood was dripping from her chin.

"I see, I see!", the opponents' defender said, laughing while stealing the ball from the awkward swordsman. "Trash attracts trash, I guess? Hahahaha!", he passed the ball to the midfielder.

"Don't worry, Ike, once you become my servant too, I will make sure to treat you two veeery well!", Hook taunted.

Then I stopped him on his tracks, running at him and hitting him with my shoulders, bringing him down, and getting the ball back.

"I won't allow that to happen", I said, looking down at the fallen bully.

"Tch!", he clicked his tongue, and he started to turn red and enraged again. "We know how to deal with the coward idiot, but you're still a problem…", to my surprise, he raised his free hand and called: "TIME! We need to gather and do some planning. You did the same with the change of your players' positions, so this is fine, right?", He wasn't really asking for permission, but already leaving as his friends followed him. "And you, bitch, you come with us! We have some steam to blow, and you better take it properly", he concluded, grabbing Ninebark by her hair, and pulling her away from the court. Things would go bad for the ugly girl.

"Guys…", Ike called, as the three of us stared at our opponents heading towards the rooms which stored the playing materials. "I have something to do, sorry", he said, and followed Hook and his goons, alone.