A battle of resilience

The figure of the incoming Akira who rushed straight at him, without a single thought leaking out of his bright stars-shaped eyes was enough to make him take a step back. 

Team W's left-wing braced himself for impact, his body unconsciously tensing up, his eyes closing themselves for half a second. 

Akira took advantage of that split second and changed his trajectory at the very last second, making a sharp turn to the right, and pushing the ball with the outside of his foot.

Realizing what had happened, Team W's left-wing groaned and grabbed Akira's shirt in a last attempt to stop him and make up for the previous embarrassment. Unexpectedly, Akira was unfazed by that little trick, he kept running as fast he could, believing the sudden tug on his shirt to be nothing more than the result of the wind resistance following how fast he was sprinting. 

He followed up by rushing towards the midfielder facing him, a wide smile brightening his face as he pushed the ball between him and the midfielder.

Seeing this as an opportunity, the midfielder sprinted to intercept the ball, throwing his leg forward in hope of reaching the ball before Akira. Unfortunately for him, Team X's right-wing already reached his maximum speed and managed to barely graze the ball, slightly pushing it to the right once again. 

Making use of his body's strength and speed, Akira got past him and rushed to stop the ball from going past the touchline. 

"I didn't think Team X had yet another worthy warrior."

Hiiragi appeared before Akira, nearly stealing the ball from him and making him come to a sudden halt, stopping for the first time since the beginning of the game.

One could see in his eyes that he was taken aback by such a quick intervention. Ever since facing Yukimiya and losing his striker position to Jude, he trained as much as he could. He believed that this game was going to be his best chance to get back his title as the strongest. 

Yet now that he was faced with Hiiragi, a player whom he could consider an equal, a seed of doubt began to grow inside him. 

"Pass it here!" Jude yelled out, doing his best to gain Akira's attention, the brightness of the stars in his eyes slowly diminished as he turned around to pass the ball. 

Right before his foot connected with the ball, he halted for half a second, questioning whether this was the right choice, to pass the ball to the one man he saw as his rival. Is he really unable to handle this on his own?

Unfortunately, that split second was all Otoya needed for his shadow to appear behind Jude, signaling that he was ready to steal the ball at any given moment. 

"Damnit!" 

Noticing that, Akira turned around once again, setting his mind on getting past the defender in front of him. Unfortunately, right as he turned around he was faced with Hiiragi tackling him, his foot successfully striking the ball and pushing it far away. 

Akira's eyes widened as he helplessly watched Hiiragi get past him and run forward while ignoring the loose ball, the empty-eyed boy had taken advantage of his momentary doubt to steal the ball from him. 

"Don't stop running!" Jude yelled out, he didn't have any time to cheer up Akira as he was running at full speed towards the ball. 

If he successfully reached it, then [Emperor's Aura] might be enough to get Akira back on his feet. Unfortunately, right before he reached the ball, the shadow that was following right behind him resurfaced and stole the ball right in front of him. 

'I didn't even notice him leaving his position, what kind of freakish ninja is that?' 

Jude gritted his teeth, launching himself forward to tackle Otoya. The lanky teenager easily jumped up and evaded it, following up with a pass towards Hiiragi while still in mid-air. 

The white-eyed boy controlled the ball with the outside of his foot, coming face to face with Ichikawa, the older brother. Hiiragi believed it to be an easy one vs one yet whenever he tried to get past Team X's midfielder he was faced with an annoying fly who refused to leave no matter what. 

Although Ichikawa was unable to completely stop him, he held him off long enough for Hiiragi to decide that linking up with Otoya was more efficient than trying to get through on his own. 

He passed the ball back to Otoya, but what he didn't expect was that this time it was the younger brother, Sugiyama, who left his position and came to face off against the man who was equally as monstrous as Jude — a man he believed to be in a class of his own. 

"Since my big brother did his part, I will also do mine." The previous unease and lack of confidence that was emanating from him was now nowhere to be seen. 

His determination overflowing as he faced one of the strongest teenagers in Japan, he took a step back, keeping a certain distance away from Otoya, believing that this would give him more time to react to whatever the ninja was preparing. 

That choice happened to be the right one, as Otoya was more comfortable with close-quarter battles, but when the difference in strength was so high, strategy was secondary. 

Otoya pushed the ball to the right with the outside of his foot, making Sugiyama flinch and take yet another step back. That was the opportunity Otoya was waiting for, in that split second he moved the ball on his left foot and sprinted forward, his footstep still as silent as when he was walking. 

The young midfielder was taken aback by such a fast and sudden change of pace, nevertheless, he used every last bit of his strength to launch a last tackle aiming to foul the speedy ninja. 

Otoya easily evaded it by leaping in the air, passing the ball towards Hiiragi once again after noticing that Sugiyama's older brother was now rushed to stop him. 

"That's getting repetitive."

Yanagi leaped in front of the samurai-looking teenager, successfully intercepting the ball before sending it forward to Jude.

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(AN: Merry Christmas everyone! Glad to see so much support! If we do reach 400 Power Stones before the end of the week, then you can be sure that a new ch will be dropping.)