"Hey, princes. You still have two more games after this, can't you regroup for those two?"
"It would be better if we won this one. We're exhausted. We can afford to lose game 2 if we take this one home. We're only down by four points."
Raiden readied his hands into a palm formation. "We will win… we just have to work together. Work like we're all here for something, anything… think about what we are going to win and put your all into it."
Tengoku spiked the ball extremely loud, a sound wave generating toward the side of Ashina as the ball headed back toward them, not giving them a chance to breathe.
"Come on Yuki! We need something here!" Gharma bumped the ball, passing it to her as he slid back, digging his heels in the gym floor.
Yuki's muscles tensing had sent shockwaves as she used the powers of her legs to jump upwards, letting the mana on her fingers form into her palms. "Gun Bash!" She hit the ball with an immense force, clearing the net and working diagonally towards the gym floor.
Shizu got the ball and tipped it upwards for Matsumi, another pass for him to get another hit in.
"All these flashes and explosions, I have to keep up!" As the match kept going, Matsumi was getting more and more acrobatic than when he started. He still felt great, felt awesome, his mind was solely focused on having fun. He didn't care about winning or losing right now, but that didn't affect his own effort. "Watch this!" He punched it to Kokkaku's face on purpose, a pseudo backboard, having it slam into his nose before quickly bouncing back up to their side. Something that he did after seeing everyone's defense and bounces. Matsumi turned his back to the net before jumping up high, in the process of a backflip to land a solid bicycle kick right on the ball. It smashed down only an inch from Gharma's feet. 10-5.
" Three hundred awesome points!" He yelled in accomplishment and excitement, this was his own version of magic. Falling on the ground with a good enough recovery.
"Nice going Matsumi! That's what we needed!" Shizu picked the ball up looking at the score. Only five points remained. Gharma scoffed. "Unbelievable." He sighed getting ready for the next serve. "We need this next one. I'll use my ability and win the entire thing then."
Raiden nodded, he had to use what he could to get the advantage for this next serve.
Shizu served the ball over. Gharma hit the ball upward. "Yuki, Raiden! Come on! I need you to get me on the pass!" Yuki fired another bolt of mana towards the back knocking it over to Raiden. Raiden knocked it back imbuing the ball with his own draconic mana. The ball directed towards Gharma. Gharma slammed the ball succesfully scoring for Ashina in the process again. The Ashina crowd screamed for him, snapping pics of him as the score was now 10-6. The ball came back to Gharma as he sighed. "Jesus...all that just to take it down to four points. Now what?" He focused, standing there with the ball. He jumped and slammed the ball again back toward Yoshiwara, the ball landed cleanly on the other side again as they screamed even louder. The score being 10-7, the tide changing in an instant again. "Wow. I'm a lucky guy it seems." More pictures flashed of him as he looked on, the ball coming back to him. Raiden nodded to Gharma applying his assistance when needed if the ball were to go back to him.
Yuki jumped up putting a peace sign in the air as she did so: "We're the greatest!"
"Two already?!" Matsumi was baffled. What was even going on? Gharma gave another serve, however the ball hit the net tipping over the line.
Vermelha hit the ball upwards toward Shizu, who then spiked it and scored meeting Gharma back with their own offense. The score now 11-6. The crowd started to lose their minds as Gharma sighed.
"Bad serve on my end..We're still in this though.."
Raiden prepared for his own counter offense again to assist Yuki and Gharma when needed, his first dragon kin attack was more versatile than the other sword requiring ones. He knew now how they could counter the other team.
Yuki clapped her hands together and prepared to assist her cousins when needed. "This will be the comeback of the century!"
Tengoku looked on picking up the ball. The energy traveling to the ball again. He threw it upwards, jumping and spiking the ball again as it headed for the trio. Yuki slid on the floor going under the ball and shooting it upwards into a bump for Raiden's assist.
Raiden launched the ball back to his brother, imbuing the ball with his aura once again, just enough to not get sapped before it got to Gharma. The white energy off of the ball disappeared as Gharma striked it. Ashina scored again, the score now 11-7. The same reaction as the crowd was going crazy for Gharma since he had scored the most points.
"Fair play. He canceled out my ability with his at the last second. He was faster than me."
Raiden prepared his mana for the next serve, planning on doing what he could this time, preparing for a counter offensive into offensive approach.
Gharma served the ball, this time another clean hit and land. The score was 11-8 now. Gharma jumped back and forth as the gym was unloose. It was unheard of that somebody in the history of the games aside from Mamba was scoring at this level. The ball landed back in his hands as he put one foot back. "Alright. Let's turn it up a notch." Gharma's eyes glowed a bright orange as he hit the ball again, however Yoshiwara couldn't even counter attack, because the ball immediately dropped towards the court floor making a large booming sound, almost as if it gained weight mid air. The score was now 11-9 as Gharma received the ball back, his eyes glowing orange as his aura began to flourish. "Being the keepers of peace? Yeah. Sounds good. I like my family being safe..but beating you to a pulp? That's more my style."
He aimed the ball back at Tengoku as they eyed each other. "You know what sounds better than you crushing us? Me crushing you. Me looking down on you because you thought you could ever give me a challenge. I don't do this for some prestigious school or my father like I said. I do this because stepping on my opponents is exciting to me. So let me let you in on true despair and loss. Crawl back home on that bus with a loss that cuts deeper than any blade a warrior could use."
"Does he always talk this much?"
"Hmph we'll see. Go ahead and serve the ball." Tengoku looked on.
"Send the ball over!"
Gharma launched the ball again as it headed straight for Matsumi, the ball coming down hard as ever. Raiden watched Chasette and the other members of the team closely, he watched for any weaknesses and any openings for a different counter.
Matsumi lifted his leg up to lightly kick the ball backwards towards the backline, giving them more than enough time to react to it. Raito bumped the ball toward the front. Vermelha slammed the ball back down as she scored again for Yoshiwara. The score was now 12-9. Yoshiwara only needing 3 points to win at this point. The Yoshiwara crowd chanted for Vermelha, despite it technically being her first day she was praised heavily for her performance. The ball being thrown back to Vermelha.
"And now the end is near." Vermelha licked her lips as her mana surrounded her, from her perspective she saw complete red from the addrenaline at hand.