"Don't make me wait." Matsumi croaked. Slowly but surely his obsession with the adrenaline the game provided started to grow and show. This wasn't good for Ashina.
Raiden's was ever expanding, he pulled it all together to surround his body. He watched the ball closely preparing for their next offensive move.
Shizu held the ball as it was tossed back to her. She bumped it at a normal pace over the net for Ashina.
Joseph huffed lightly, fixing his posture and stretching left to right. "I just want to be certain before I try to exert myself a bit too much." A slight tinge of black outlined against raiden's aura to make up the outlines of it, he was not quite in position to strike, just waiting to provide that extra help.
Gharma hit the ball back over the net heading for one of Yoshiwara's team members. A strange looking girl would jump and palm the ball back over. Gharma cringed at her appearance. Who in the fucking world?
She had the features of multiple creatures. She stared on at him, her mana exploding as her skin glowed, the air pressure itself redirecting the ball upwards. When Cynil redirected the ball back towards Yoshiwara, She jumped in the air immediately, the mana flying off of her forearms. She hit the ball straight toward Ashina once more, the spin on the ball being as lethal as ever. One that would be incredibly hard to hit without the ball spinning off them or injuring them badly similar to Cynil.
"I'll handle this." Joseph engaged his ability, his body bulging out as his muscles expanded. He grew taller in stature. He raised his hand and collided with the ball, causing it to spin against his palm as his shadows began to absorb the energy of the hit, before sending the ball straight back down to the opposing side and scoring from the sheer power put into sending it back, though Joseph immediately had to go back to normal, letting his body shrink back as he panted slightly. The score was now 5-5, tied once again.
"Damn. It's a good thing having to take all of that force didn't break my concentration though I'm just a bit more drained than earlier. I'll need to watch what I do next Raiden."
Raiden's blood boiled as he watched Joseph take the brunt of the ball, it wasn't anger but his view on the woman that had hit the ball. It made his face numb. He felt a strange sense of familiarity but couldn't put his finger on it. "What the…?" Raiden jumped back into position. "It's alright! This next one you can take a break." Raiden had fully expected to go for the ball if no one else had went for it but now he knew that Joseph might need a little rest.
Chasette picked up the ball and looked on at Raiden, eyeing him. "The same exact energy as me. That can't be possible. Not in this day and age." Cynil took the next serve, tapping it over toward Yoshiwara. Chasette targeted Raiden immediately, sending the ball back toward him. A pink and purple energy surrounded the ball. The energy sticking and melting off of the ball as if it were it's own subtance.
"Shit."
Kasaru watched the ball fly towards Raiden, he debated on if he should try and step in and block it with his own arm, his eyes widened as he realised he didn't have much choice. He quickly ran to the front and quickly crossed his arms. He let out a sigh of agony, as his arms were quickly engulfed in jet black feathers, his hit deflected the ball back with as much strength as he could.
"Ngh!"
The strength made his arms bleed a bit, blood dripped off his feathers. However, he was successful as he launched the ball back. He fell down and stumbled a little. The feathers quickly disappeared as his arms were left covered in pinpricks, for most people they didn't even catch a good glimpse at his ability, more looking like a trick of the light if anything, his arms healed quickly from their injuries.
Raiden jumped over to Kasaru, he helped pick him up and keep him steady, his eyes darting towards Chasette. A look of anger for hurting his teammate had hit his brain. He wouldn't lash out, but his expression changed to a look of worry as he looked back at Kasaru. "Dammit! Kasaru! I had that!" He looked back towards Chasette, quickly readying for any reaction that would be necessary.
Kasaru took a moment to himself, his right arm looked limp. It took a moment but Raiden could hear the bones in his arms pop back into place. Kasaru let out a groan as he rubbed the arm, looking at him before quickly looking away. "S-Sorry, I hadn't been doing anything up until that point and I felt that was the best way to get a play in."
Kasaru stepped away as he rubbed his arm, anyone looking would notice his arm rather bizarrely had its veins visible. Not only that... he seemed to have a hell of a lot more veins than the average person. They quickly faded down as he stretched his arm, returning to the side as he kept his eye on the other team.
Meanwhile, Vermelha eyed Chasette. She moved out of pure instinct, sending it straight with a pass to her.
Chasette went to hit the ball as she eyed Raiden once more. He was too familiar and that bothered her. How could a human share the same DNA as a Cerī? She didn't know. His existence itself was an anomaly to her. She looked up at the king, Rai and back down before sending the ball to Matsumi. She faked Raiden out completely to give Matsumi free reign over the defenders.
Matsumi watched closely, the fakeout successful for a split second before his eyes darted back to the ball. He wouldn't let them get another point due to his failure. Not another chance.
Rai watched the young Ceri, his face was not one of happiness anymore but one of focus. He sensed the same energy from her as his own sons and wife. He was intrigued by her energy the second she stepped onto the court. "Another one…huh…" He spoke to himself.
Noelle turned her head towards her brother, not questioning him but quietly turning back to the game, wondering what he meant by that.
"Matsumi! We need another hit!"
While all of this was happening, Matsumi was slowly stepping back to the line at the very edge of their side. "Here's my magic blondie!" In an explosion of acrobatics, Matsumi ran forward and jumped up into the air, almost fully clearing the net if he wanted. A much taller jump than any average joe could do, even higher than he was able to just earlier. In the air he raised his foot up vertically before delivering a solid axe kick to the ball, right down to the weakened Kasaru.
"H-Hey!" Gharma moved in front of Kasaru, however he couldn't put his hands over his face for protection in time. The ball hit Gharma in the face clean as it shot up, the ball still in play. Gharma held his hands out, not being able to see as he had a black eye from getting hit in the face with the ball. Cynil used his hands as a stepping stool and jumped up, clearing the net completely as she reached the ball. She chopped at the ball hard, it's side bending in as it headed straight down toward Matsumi. "Blitzkrieg." She started to chop at the ball more and more, reversing it's force back and forth until she shot it down toward Yoshiwara, the ball zipping through the sky.
"Oh, you fucking.." Kasaru winced as he tried to prepare himself to try and carry the balls momentum to spin around, his attention was cut off by Gharma getting in front of him, watching past him as the ball was stopped by Cynil. He sighed in relief. "Cheers..."
Joseph looked back to Gharma and waved a hand slightly, letting a shadow snake up to his face to make a sort of makeshift eye patch over the blackened eye. "You alright man? Didn't get you too bad did it?"
"Im fine. Let's focus on this play..It's starting to heat up slowly.."
"Oh! This one is fast! It'll be tough dude!" Matsumi said before completely moving out of the way of the ball, knowing that he had positioned himself right in front of the Akiko. Someone he knew was much capable to handle the impact of the ball.
The ball had suddenly stopped rolling eventually, stalling in the air as a white energy dripped off of it. Cynil was immediately countered by the prodigy. Tengoku moved into the air and hit it back down toward the group on the ground.
"A tokubetsu! Be careful!" Raiden charged forward, his own Tokubetsu had come to light with the assistance of his allies, his aura had become violent as he dashed foward in a blitz, pulling his hands back before pushing them foward. "Dragon Kin: Half Blood!" He sent a shockwave back towards the ball, the shockwave sent the ball up into the air, the two Tokubetsu clashing against the ball as it rotated and spun in the air, resembling a clash of attacks. The two auras were mixing and fighting for control over the ball itself.
Matsumi had his eyes solely focused on this unique interaction he'd never seen before. His face full of awe. For some reason Raiden's Tokubetsu was immediately dying against the ball as it continued to head for the boy. His Tokubetsu was easily out powering Raiden's to the point where it was comical. The energy from Raiden vanished as the ball slowly headed toward him.
Raiden turned around and watched the ball, a last ditch effort from the young half blood. He got into a standard backwards facing volleyball stance, he knew his Ceri cells would regenerate if the hit damaged him in anyway. He cupped his fists and met the ball with his own hands, grunting as the impact bruised his fingers despite it's slow nature. What was this? Colliding with the ball almost felt like Raiden was being sapped of his energy. Drops and Drops of mana were absorbed out of Raiden as the ball used his own energy against him, spinning and digging into his hands as it sped up once more, rotating against his knuckles.
Raiden winced in pain as he used all of his strength, grunting as he pushed upwards, his mana being sapped quickly, his damaged hands were constantly regenerating. He yelled out as he sent the ball back upwards. "HYAHHHHH!!!"
Shizu moved upwards as the ball headed for Yoshiwara. She slammed the ball clean right over the net, an impossible shot to stop. The score now being 6-5 in their favor.