30 Ch. 30 Offense to Defense

Myrddin leaves Scott to get dressed. The guy will make it back to civilization somehow.

He begins wandering through the woods and heading towards the school. He wants to turn in the money to be able to play lacrosse. Sorry, to participate. Most of the sports are Pay-to-Participate meaning you aren't paying to play in any games, you are paying to join the team and possibly play depending on how good you are and how much the coach likes you.

*GHHhhhrrr*

Myrddin hears a familiar sound. But it sounds gruffer than in the past. Either way, it's the damned beast.

Knowing that he left Scott basically with his pants down for the beast to attack he runs back through the woods.

Then he hears panting and rapid footsteps likely from Scott. And he can also hear the heavy pounding on the ground from the big beasts running.

"Aqua" He says decently loud. He doesn't want to shout and he doesn't want to be too quiet.

The fog in front of Myrddin begins to thin out to allow him to see more.

Ahead of him he can see the beast charging forward.

"Terra!" He shouts. Not wanting to give the beast a chance to attack Scott or get away.

The beast falters in its charge for a second. But before it can turn around.

*FSSSssshhh!!* *Thunk*

*Grrrrrrrraaaaaawwwwwrrrrr*

The beast howls as it gets impaled and it's charge comes to a sudden stop.

Myrddin doesn't enjoy the fact his plan worked as he takes his wand out from the inside pocket of his jacket.

"Terra!" He shouts as he points the wand at the ground beneath the beast.

*Grrrrrr* *Snap!!*

The Earth spike gets snapped and pulled from its chest like it's a splinter.

Murddin doesn't falter as the beast turns it's blood thirsty gaze onto him.

*Vvvvsssshhhhh*

The ground beneath the beast swallows its hind legs a foot.

Myrddin knows he has one last spell before he has to make a run for it. And as he was about to cast a fireball he feels something swell from inside him.

"FULMEN!!!" He shouts.

*KRRR-crack*

A thin line of electricity shoots out from his wand and arcs through the fog in the blink of an eye as it crashes into the beast's chest and causes its eyes to widen and move up onto its hind legs.

Myrddin's own eyes widen when he sees the beasts height and a single word moves through his mind about the bipedal wolf.

'lupinotuum'

The voice echoes.

"No shit!" Myrddin says as he turns around and takes off. He curses the stupid voice in his mind. Obviously it's a werewolf. Why wouldn't the voice have told him that the first time he saw it? Fucking bull shit is why.

"Aqua" He doesn't shout in hopes of not giving his position away too much.

The fog quickly becomes more dense on the immediate area and begins getting ticker from behind him.

"Ventus" Myrddin summons gusts of wind to bring the fog in different directions to mislead the beast.

He makes the wind make as much noise as possible to cover the sound of his footprints. The leaves and loose dirt make a decent amount of noise and so he throws them in different directions.

'Come on giant stump!' He imagines the big stump and in the next second he breaks through the fog and into the clearing.

By the time Myrddin slows himself down he comes to a stop right in front of the stump.

He pants lightly as he catches his breath. He isn't sure how fast he was but the beast wasn't able to catch him.

Myrddin now realizes that this beast is much more resilient than he expected. If it wasn't for that lightning bolt the beast might have been ontop of him in seconds. But the beast was slowed by the small amount of electricity and having to force its feet from the solid ground.

All in all: successful mission in saving Scott.

"Hahaha!" Myrddin begins laughing a little. He could have fucked up very badly. He's not sure why he used 'Fulmen' for the first time, without practicing it, against the beast. He had one chance and if he messed up that could have been the end.

And he's not even gonna try to think about the werewolf thing until later. Because if it is a werewolf and it bit Scott...

Best to think about this later.

He looks around the clearing and puts his wand back inside his jacket's inner pocket. He sits on the ground and leans his back against the stump and looks up at the very early morning sky.

Myrddin pats a root of the stump. "Thanks for saving me again, whatever you are"

——————

Myrddin jogs next to Erica. "So how did you like the lacrosse practice yesterday? Was it as exciting as you thought it would be?"

Erica jogs at a relatively slow pace, but she can't go much faster unless she wants to exhaust herself. "I… I'm not really sure what I was expecting. But it was interesting. And it looked like you were having fun"

"I was having fun. I tried to find you after the practice ended but I guess you had to leave" Myrddin says while they turn a corner of the gym.

"My dad came and picked me up earlier than expected…" Erica looks slightly down at the ground.

Myrddin notices this. "Hey, no worries. As long as everything worked out it's all good. It's not like you have to stay till the end. Watching us do the same thing over and over probably gets boring"

"No! You were very interesting-! I- lacrosse is interesting! I don't think it was boring! And… a bunch of others were also very invested into your practice! Lots of girls to be specific…." Erica tries to recover but her words just end up tripping herself.

Myrddin looks to the side. "Lydia did say there were cheerleaders basically just for me or something stupid like that…." He mutters.

"Yeah, they were very loud…" Erica's shoulders slump slightly.

"Did you cheer for me?"

"Huh?!" Erica immediately turns her attention to Murddin who is raising an eyebrow at her. "Me? I… no. I didn't cheer…"

"Ah, I could imagine it would be embarrassing. I don't think I would be able to cheer if I was in your position either" Myrddin shrugs.

Erica remembers seeing Myrddin during the homecoming game last year and how he didn't cheer at all but intently watched the game. She had only glanced at him from time to time but he didn't really do much else besides watch and not move much. "I… didn't think cheering would help"

"You're wrong. I think that if I played with and without the people I care about cheering me on I would play very differently. Knowing that they're watching me would make me want to perform exponentially better" Myrddin can already imagine his mom cheering him on from the stands with his dad wrapping his arm around her and the pride on their faces.

Erica mulls over what he said.

——————

Myrddin is standing in the usual spot after gym class but he doesn't have his lacrosse equipment. Only a small envelope.

"No practice today?" Erica curiously asks. But she sees him still in his gym clothes so she isn't sure.

"There's practice. But I gotta turn this in to the Athletic Director" Murddin holds up the envelope. "And I just wanted to tell you so you didn't think I ditched you or something"

Erica blushes. "I… wouldn't think you ditched me…" Especially after she thought he ditched her during the summer. She has a lot more trust and faith in him now.

"Still, just wanted to let you know. Are you heading to practice today? We're going full contact and fighting for our spot on first line. Even if I already have a spot" Myrddin smirks and whispers the last sentence.

Erica tightly holds a binder close to her chest with both arms. "Y-yeah. I'll be watching"

"Great, I gotta go if I want to be at practice on time. See you in the stands" Myrddin waves before he jogs across the gym towards the Athletic Directors office.

"Good luck" Erica cautiously says and quickly looks around to see if anybody saw her. She looks back to Myrddin and sees him walk backwards through the doors and nod with the most charming smile she had ever seen.

Murddin walks out and continues on his way. He isn't sure how long this will take and he wants to get to practice on time at least even if coach will excuse him for turning in the money to play.

Erica watches him leave and she turns to the side as her blush intensifies and butterflies flutter around madly inside her. She brings her binder up to her mouth to hide her silly smile.

——————

*Zzzzzip*

Scott puts his bag in his locker as he finishes getting ready for practice. Today will determine who plays first line during the scrimmage Friday which basically determines who plays first line for the rest of the season.

No pressure.

*Slam!* *Clang!*

Scott jumps back slightly as his locker is forced shut and he sees Jackson Whittemore angrily eyeing him down.

"All right, little man" Jackson takes a step closer to Scott and glares at him. "How 'bout you tell me where you're getting your juice~"

Scott blinks. "What?"

"Where are you. Getting. Your juice" Jackson tries again to be sly and intimidating in his questioning.

Scott's eyes move around as he tries to think of an answer. He looks back at Jackson. "My mom does all the grocery shopping"

Jackson looks at Scott incredulously for a second before going back to his angry and intimidating expression. "Now listen here McCall. You're going to tell me EXACTLY what it is and who you're buying it from, because there's no way in hell you're out there kicking ass on the field like that without some sort of chemical boost"

Scott's eyebrows shoot up as he realizes what Jackson is implying. "OH, you mean steroids" Scott looks at the ground as another realization hits him, specifically something Myrddin said on the first day of school last year. "Are you on steroids?"

Jackson grabs McCall's collar and pushes him against the locker aggressively. "What the hell is going on with you, McCall?!"

After getting slammed against the locker Scott has had enough. "What's going on with me?!"

Jackson nods.

"You really wanna know?!" Scott asks again.

Jackson takes his hand off of his chest but doesn't back away.

"Well, so would I!" Scott shouts. "Because I-"

Jackson feels someone grab the back of his jersey and pull him back. "Wha-!!" They were the last two in the locker room and Jackson knows that because he made sure of that.

"I'm gonna have to stop the foreplay here you two. I don't want to see any angry fucking while I get ready for practice so can you two go make-up or make-out outside?" Myrddin let's go of Jackson's jersey.

"The hell are you doing here Myrddin?!" Jackson shouts.

"Getting changed so I can practice dumbass. Now get the fuck outta here, your locker is on the other side of this damn room" Myrddin nods his head upwards towards the exit and where Jackson's locker is.

Jackson glares between Scott and Myrddin. "I know you BOTH are hiding something. I'm gonna find out what it is. And I don't care how long it takes"

*SLAM!!!*

The lockers complain loudly after Jackson slams his side of his fist against them. He walks away after sending one last look at them, specifically Myrddin.

Myrddin watches Jackson leave. "Hopefully you can find it faster than your sexuality" He scoffs beneath his breath.

Now it's Scott's turn to give an incredulous look, this time at Murddin. And for a few reasons.

Myrddin doesn't wait around and goes over to his locker on the side of the room, a row over from Scott's.

"What the…" Scott whispers to himself. He doesn't understand why Murddin would stop Jackson. Or why he is here so late in general. After this morning…. a lot of things don't make much sense.

——————

Scott is on the bench tying his shoes.

"Scott!! Scott, wait up!" Stiles' high pitched pleads catch Scott's ears.

"Stiles, I'm playing the first elimination, man- can it wait?" Scott begins explaining after standing up and grabbing his stick and helmet.

Stiles stands behind the bench and puts his left hand on Scott's left shoulder pad. "Just hold on, okay? I overheard my dad on the phone. The fiber analysis came back from the lab in L.A." Stiles smacks Scott on the arm to get his attention back. "They found animal hairs on the body from the woods!"

Scott begins jogging away.

"Wait! No, Scott!" He tries to catch his friend but isn't able to. "You are not gonna believe what the animal was! It was a-"

"Wolf?"

Stiles turns around and sees Merlin, aka Myrddin Wyllt, sitting on the bench a little ways away with his helmet on. Stiles' eyes slightly widen in panic. "What? Wolf? No way~. Wolfs haven't been near Beacon Hills in-"

"60 years. I remember. So what was the analysis then?" Myrddin asks.

Stiles rubs the back of his head. "I- Uhm…. I'm not supposed to tell…?"

"More like you aren't supposed to know and you don't want to tell" Myrddin shrugs. "Cmon, grab your stick and helmet already, practice is starting"

Stiles watches as Myrddin jogs over towards the group of lacrosse players. He sighs but his mind is working a million miles a minute.

*Whi-Whistle!!!*

"Let's go! Gather round!" Coach Finstock motions towards himself for his players to come to him. "Bring it in~, come on! Come ooooon!"

Myrddin looks over at the people getting ready to watch them practice and spots Allison, surprisingly not with Lydia, waving at Scott. He also sees Erica sitting down at the edge of the crowd of people smiling at him.

"Got a question McCall?" Bobby says genuinely willing to answer the teen's question.

Scott lowers his hand and takes his goofy smile off his face as he looks at his coach. "What?"

"You raised your hand. You have a question?" Bobby asks, with no hint of his iconic sarcasm. It kinda throws Myrddin off, he prefers the sarcastic and funny coach better. But it's reassuring to know that coach can be serious not only in the classroom.

"Oh… No. I was just, uh… Nothing. Sorry" Scott just stops talking.

Bobby moves past whatever that was and addresses the team. "Okay. You know how this goes, except for you Merlin. IF you don't make the cut…" Coach pronounces each word specifically and then shrugs his shoulders. "… you're most likely sitting on the bench for the rest of the season"

"You MAKE the cut…" Finstock smiles and walks around a little bit. "You play~"

"Your parents are proud" He taps one guys chest before moving around the circle of players around him.

"Your girlfriend loves ya!!!!" He grabs someone's helmet and jerk's it around before smacking the guy on his chest. "Huh?!"

"Everything else is, uh…." He turns to the next guy which happens to be Scott. "Cream Cheese~"

"Now get out there! and show me! Whatcha! Got! Come on!" Bobby gets his team hyped as he backs away towards the sideline.

"Let's go! Let's go!" People shout. Players get hyped and start jumping a little bit and smacking eachother.

The players then move to their specific teams around the field.

"Merlin! Get over here!" Bobby whisper shouts.

"What do you need coach?" Myrddin runs over.

"What do I need? I need a wife that loves me and prepares me a wonderful dinner when I come home exhausted of babysitting hormonal teenagers like yourself. But what I WANT is to see how you play defense. I know you're a good shot but I WANT to know if you're a one trick pony or not" Booby smacks Myrddin's helmet.

"Isn't it phony?" Myrddin asks.

Bobby grabs Myrddin helmet on both hands. "Do you know the defensive plays?"

Myrddin nods. "I memorized all the plays for all positions coach"

Bobby is stunned a little but shakes his head. "Great! Now after a team gets their ass handed to them on a silver platter I need you to go in there and make sure their ass stays off the next platter. You understand?"

"Yyyyes? Coach?" Myrddin figures he will play defense after a team miserably loses.

"Perfect! Don't go far, when I call you next you're going in!" Bobby smacks his helmet and then throws Myrddin to the bench on the sideline.

Murddin doesn't resist and lets coach move him. He takes a seat on the bench next to Isaac.

"What up Merlin?" Isaac greets his fellow teammate.

"Hey Isaac, you aren't in there right now?" Myrddin motions towards the field of 20 players.

"Not yet. There are 4 teams we have, meaning about 40 some odd players. Only 20 can play at a time so here I am" Isaac explains.

"So we're going one elimination game at a time?" Myrddin asks while he looks at the field. Scott is squaring off against Jackson for the ball in the center of the field.

"Kinda? It's basically whatever coach wants. Like how he will be subbing you in, it's completely left to his whims. But he is fair at giving everyone a chance at least" Isaac struggles to explain. It's a little more complicated than this, but for Myrddin's purposes Isaac feels it's acceptable.

——————

Myrddin watches Scott get body checked by Jackson as soon as he gets the ball. And Jackson stands over Scott to assert his dominance or whatever.

The next round starts and it's Scott against Jackson in the middle of the field to fight over the ball.

Right from the gates, the first whistle for this second round, Scott wipes the floor with the entirety of the opposing team. He wins the ball within a second of the whistle going off, leaving Jackson to play catch-up. He does some fancy footwork and fakes out the first defensive player. Then against a second, he spins around on the ball of his right foot in an impressive display. And he does a front flip over the 3 defensive players that were lined up in a wall to lay him out. And then he throws the ball between the goalies legs to score.

*Whi-Whistle*

*Cheers from the crowd!!!*

Myrddin watches as some lacrosse players gather around Scott and Allison cheer him on. Then he watches as coach congratulated him on making first line after scaring the teen.

"Merlin! Keep their ass of the silver platter will you?!" Bobby motions for him to go in and he drags a player off the field.

"Good luck man" Isaac offers a fist bump.

Myrddin fist bumps Isaac. "Same to you too when it's your turn"

He goes and takes his position on the field after tapping Jackson on the chest with the back of his hand. They're on the same side right now so Myrddin doesn't see why they have to fight each other.

He gives and receives nods from his fellow defense teammates and goalie. They don't know how good he is on defense but they've seen him pull off some spectacular moves before so imagining him playing defense with those moves isn't hard.

Scott does the same thing to Jackson as before. And he out maneuvers 2 mid-fielders.

Myrddin runs head on at Scott who isn't slowing down either.

Scott grins and spins on the ball of his foot again-

*CRASH!!!*

Suddenly, he feels the ground beneath his feet fall out from under him. Or more accurately, he feels himself get lifted into the air. Then he feels himself be forced back down to Earth.

Scott lands heavily on his back as the air in his lungs disappears.

——————

Myrddin recognized the same move and knew exactly how to counter it. He spun on his own heel and led with his shoulder as he drove it up into Scott's chest, literally lifting the guy off his feet. And then Myrddin shifted his stance to drive Scott back down to earth by only using his own shoulder.

*Whi-Whistle!!!*

"Take it down a notch or everyone will be suspicious" Myrddin whispers and then offers a hand to Scott.

But Scott doesn't take his hand and sits up by rolling onto his side slightly.

Myrddin doesn't miss the scowl on Scott's face. But he shrugs and takes his hand back. Of Scott doesn't want to take his advice he won't force him to.

The crowd cheers at the fantastic hit that Myrddin just delivered.

Coach Finstock can only grin and rub his chin. This kid really is a Wizard of lacrosse. He can already picture the win at the finals for this season. Especially if McCall can continue to do what he did, not just did, but before that. And Bobby doesn't count that body check against Scott. Merlin is just that good.

Bobby also is relieved to see that Scott got up on his own. And he didn't miss Merlin's extended hand that got ignored.

"Come on! Get ready for the next one people! Let's keep this going!" Bobby shouts.

"Good job Myrddin…."

Myrddin looks over at Erica after hearing her quietly cheer him on. He lifts his stick in the air in her direction.

Erica's eyes widen as the blush she thought disappeared comes back with a vengeance.

And she's not the only one. A bunch of girls also blush, and they scream loudly to try and get Merlin's attention. But he's already focused back into the game.