The edge of the court got packed tight with students watching, and they formed a solid ring of bodies.
"The rules are simple."
Hugo took off his uniform jacket and showed the tight sports tank underneath.
He rolled his wrists while he laid out the rules for Leo and the others.
"Three on three, half court. First team to five baskets wins, and the losers better stop coming to Class 3's turf to start shit!"
"Whatever," Leo said as he scoffed.
"Just don't start crying later."
He casually tossed the ball to one of his lackeys.
The guy threw it high into the air, and the game started.
Leo's side grabbed possession first.
He didn't test anything, and he just exploded forward as his shoulder smashed into Hugo like a battering ram.
Hugo let out a grunt and stumbled back a few steps, but Leo was already in the paint and finished an easy layup.
"One to zero!"
Leo shot a smug look at Hugo, who still wasn't fully steady, and then he turned that nasty stare on me.
The pace kept shifting.
I stayed mixed in and moved clumsily with my teammates, but I kept a careful distance from the ball and the main contact area.
I didn't run fast, and I kept my back slightly hunched, so I looked out of place in a rough, testosterone-heavy game.
My job was to slack off, but I couldn't slack off too obviously.
When Hugo drove with the ball and tried to break through, I'd jog over a beat late.
I'd put my body in the defender's path and set a weak screen that didn't threaten anyone.
When the ball ended up in my hands, I'd immediately shove it away with a cheap two-hand push pass and throw it to the closest teammate.
Even though Hugo and Leo were both on the school team, their roles and styles were totally different.
Hugo was more of a floor general who liked outside shots, but Leo was a pure paint monster.
In a small half-court like this, Hugo's advantage got cut down hard, and Leo's size slammed into him almost every time he touched the ball.
Thump.
Hugo lost those body clashes again and again, and then he staggered as the ball popped loose.
Leo's teammate scooped it up and scored an easy layup.
"Two to zero!"
Class 8's cheer squad erupted with sharp ugly yelling, and Class 3 could only sigh.
I watched it and quietly moved back to my defensive spot.
With my chest lightly rising from the running I didn't even want to do, sweat slid down my temple, ran along my cheek, and then gathered at my chin before it dropped.
This was turning into a straight beatdown.
Leo was basically unstoppable in the paint, and every time he got the ball, he charged like a bull.
Hugo and another guy, Jasper, looked like two sheepdogs trying to block a bull, and they kept getting bounced around.
The score hit three to zero fast.
Class 3's cheering weakened, and the sighs got heavier.
"Fuck, how are we supposed to play like this?" Jasper bent over with his hands on his knees as he sucked in air and sounded crushed.
Hugo's face looked just as bad, and his hair was soaked with sweat and stuck to his forehead.
He glanced at me, and the look carried a tired kind of helplessness.
There was no blame in it.
He knew I couldn't play, and just standing here already counted as showing up.
On the next possession, Jasper made a bad pass under Leo's tight defense.
The ball clipped the rim and bounced high.
The court turned into chaos as multiple people jumped at once to fight for the rebound.
I happened to be drifting under the hoop, and I looked up at the ball dropping like a meteor as I threw my hands up and swatted at it in a panic.
The orange ball hit the side of the backboard at a weird angle.
Then it wobbled and spun around the rim twice.
Everyone held their breath.
Swish.
The net made that clean nylon sound.
It went in.
The whole crowd froze like they'd just watched a miracle.
Hugo reacted first.
He stared for two seconds, and then he broke into a wild laugh while he rushed over and punched my shoulder hard.
"Holy shit! What kind of god-tier shot was that? That's insane!"
Damn, you trying to take me out too?
Jasper ran over with his face full of disbelief.
"Luke, with luck like that, you're stupid if you don't buy lottery tickets."
Class 3 finally snapped out of it, and the sideline exploded in loud cheering.
"No way! It went in! It actually went in!"
"Luke's a beast! Even a lucky one counts!"
"Three to one! We still have a shot!"
I acted like I had no idea what just happened, and I gave an awkward smile.
"I… I don't know either… it just went in by itself."
"Bullshit," Leo spat, and his face went dark as hell.
He couldn't understand it, and he couldn't accept it.
He'd worked hard to build that lead, and now some trash he didn't even take seriously stole a point back in the dumbest way possible.
The game kept going.
That ridiculous lucky basket hit the team like a shot of adrenaline, and the momentum started shifting.
Hugo found his rhythm again, and he stopped trying to crash into Leo head-on.
With smarter movement and Jasper setting picks, he nailed two mid-range jumpers in a row.
The score got dragged back to a tie, and then it flipped.
Three to three, four to three, and then the other side answered with one.
Four to four.
Both teams hit game point.
The whole court went dead serious.
The students around the court started breathing lighter without even noticing.
Every dribble, and every squeak of shoes on the ground, got louder and louder in everyone's ears.
Possession went to Class 3.
Hugo held the ball, and his chest heaved while sweat soaked through his tank.
He signaled for me and Jasper to clear out, and he set up for the last shot.
He dribbled and went one-on-one with Leo.
Both of them tensed up, and they locked eyes.
Hugo faked left, and then he exploded right.
It worked.
He shook him off by half a body.
The win was right there.
But when he kicked the ball inside to a wide-open Jasper, something went wrong.
Maybe he was too nervous, because he fumbled the catch and the ball slipped right off his fingers.
"My bad!" Jasper blurted out, pure regret.
Leo was closest, and he lunged in and grabbed the loose ball tight.
He ran straight at the hoop like nobody was there.
He planted his foot and launched.
His strong body stretched out in the air, and he raised the ball high toward the orange rim.
He was going to end this with a hard dunk and dump out all his anger and humiliation.
The cheering from Class 3 stopped cold, and everyone's heart dropped.
Hugo and Jasper looked sick with frustration.
It was over.
We were going to lose.
Whatever. I can't play anyway….
[Ding!]
A cold electronic voice blew up inside my head.
[System Notice: Active skill "Intimidate" has detected the host is being subjected to a humiliating attack meant as a performance. This behavior has seriously offended the inherent dignity of Goblin Hero….]
[Active skill Intimidate comment: I'm here to have fun fighting, so why are you acting like a little bitch? Respect matters!]
System Notice: Intimidate has activated a counter plan and has temporarily taken control of body permissions while it forcibly uses the passive skill Unyielding to counterattack.]
WTTFFF?!!!
Wait fuckigg Stop!!!
Right when Leo rose to the highest point and his smug smile froze on his face, a slim figure appeared in front of him like a ghost.
"What the hell?!"
I'd been getting back on defense with that spaced-out look the whole time, and in everyone's eyes I was just a background extra who had already given up and was slowly drifting back.
But the moment Leo jumped, Unyielding surged up and flooded my limbs.
My knees bent in a blink, I loaded power, and then I kicked off.
No run-up.
Just a terrifying vertical leap.
Boom!
A heavy, brutal impact cracked through the air.
It didn't sound like a block.
It sounded like a wall slamming head-on into a speeding truck.
Leo's dunk got stopped cold by an arm that looked thin but hit like it didn't give a damn about physics.
The ball got swatted free and flew out, and Leo's upward momentum got cut off hard as he lost balance and crashed down.
The smug twist on his face got replaced by pure shock.
The ball hit the floor and bounced into Hugo's hands.
Hugo froze for a split second, but his instincts took over.
He caught it, jumped in place, and threw the shot with everything he had left.
The ball traced a clean arc through the air.
Swish.
Nothing but net.
5 to 4.
Game over.
Everyone went silent for three full seconds.
Then the cheering blew up like a dam snapping, and it rolled across the whole field like an eruption.
"We won! We fucking won!"
"Oh my god, that block from Luke!"
"What did I just see?! He looked like he flew!"
Was this some anime shit in real life?
Every Class 3 student went completely crazy.
They screamed, they yelled, and they rushed onto the court while they swarmed me and the other two.
In the middle of the roar, Leo and his lackeys looked dead, like stray dogs.
He got up off the ground, and the look he gave me was a mess of anger, refusal, and humiliation.
He didn't say a word.
He picked up his uniform off the ground and walked off with his boys without looking back.
"Luke, you were fucking awesome!"
Hugo sounded stunned.
"That block… how did you do that?!"
Jasper's face was bright red, and he was so excited he couldn't speak cleanly.
"Starting today, you're my real bro!"
They shook me until my head spun, and I could only force out a humble smile that matched what everyone wanted to see.
"I've always had decent hops."
But inside, I sighed.
So damn tired.
What the hell is all this…