Gareth and Burgandy vs Carl and Blue with Marigold on the side
Current Match Score 1-1
Gareth POV chapter.
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Once Marigold started comically booing from the sidelines, and throwing out rather weak insults such as "Throw the ball pansy," or "Clearly Burgandy is worn out, but people leave my bedroom twice as exhausted and five times as satisfied" with a big smirk on her face, Burgandy and Gareth decided it was time to serve. Even if it was just to shut Marigold up.
It did have the side effect that Carl and Blue weren't particularly concerned with how long the other two took. They were clearly enjoying Marigold's commentary. Still, eventually Gareth made his serve. Once the stone platform was lower just a touch. Gareth's serve was a slow lob that gave him plenty of time to get back in position before the ball hit the water.
Once it did, Blue tried to drop the ball off right at the edge on Gareth's side, but he was ready for it. Stomping the ball back into the water only for it to shoot out over his head. Gareth backpedalled and smacked the ball back once again, only for Blue to keep up the pressure on him specifically. Rushing forward to get the ball for the third time in a row, Gareth put a bit of his frustration into the kick.
It wasn't enough frustration apparently, because the ball came back flying over his head. Gareth backed up again, and just as he was about to jump at the ball, his foot hit the edge of the stone platform. His eyes went wide and he tried to overcorrect but it wasn't quite fast enough. Even as he was slipping, Burgandy was already moving. She'd seen Gareth trip and wasn't about to lose a point to it.
She sprinted as fast as she could and dove off the platform, ready to catch it before it hit the ground… perhaps a bit too ready. You see, the ball was actually heading out of bounds. Not by much, but Blue had overshot. Which is what makes it all the more crushing for Burgandy as she smacked the ball back… and landed outside of the zone. Her eyes widened as she realised what she did, but didn't let that keep her long.
She was charging back up the stairs, though Gareth had something in mind. Despite the ball not needing the extra energy, he managed to sprint under it and hit it up towards the sky, cancelling some of its sideways momentum and giving Burgandy precious extra seconds. Those seconds ended up mattering because Blue tried to use Burgandy's recent run to score a point on her side of the court.
It wasn't enough luckily… and so the group of for settled back into a rally. This time, Carl was keeping his attention fixed on the ball, no relaxing for him. Burgandy and Gareth were both kicking the ball back into the water. Sometimes using more force, but usually not bothering. It didn't seem to be costing Blue any additional mana when they put in that extra effort. So they were trending towards not bothering.
Still, it was hard to find a good opportunity. Gareth and Burgandy saw a few decent chances… but Carl was always watching closely so it never seemed to be the right time. Sadly, the stalemate wasn't really favouring them. At this point, Blue had was able to reflexively return the ball as long as it wasn't anything fancy, but Gareth and Burgandy kept needing to put in more effort.
Eventually, they had to slip up. Burgandy went for a stomp on the ball… but she missed. The ball slick with the water it had just left slipped past her heal and smacked into her other shoe before she could even react. "Point to Carl and Blue. 2-1" said Thyme.
Burgandy cursed at herself even as the ball flew back into the water. Thyme let Blue drop it down to Carl by opening up a section of it so he could serve. "Sorry about that," mumbled Burgandy, mostly trying to keep her anger at herself in check.
"It's no problem. We've been doing well, and even getting one point is a great showing. Still… even though it's 2-1 maybe we should take a few more risks?" said Gareth.
Burgandy nodded, clearly waiting too long for an opportunity wasn't a good plan. So it was convenient that they were able to decide quickly because Carl wasn't waiting. He smacked the ball into the water as soon as he possibly could to get things started again. Burgandy, in turn wasn't going to let this chance go. Seeing that Carl was so far away from the front, she waited for the launch and then jumped and smashed the ball with everything she had.
Carl was already running forward, just to get in position, so seeing Burgandy go for it just made him speed up. As he was doing this Gareth was sprinting over to help Burgandy. The ball crashed into the water and managed to keep up the momentum all the way to the bottom, just barely managing to out of the water. Carl was waiting though and he was ready. This time he managed to smack it back up into Blue's spell.
Burgandy was pulled off this edge by Gareth, though he dropped her quickly, causing her to stumble slightly. Gareth was already sprinting for the other side of the platform where Blue was trying to catch him out. The ball was already leaving the water and Gareth could see he wasn't quite going to make it… *shit I'm not going to be able to recover easily from this.* "Burgandy cover me!" yelled Gareth as he dove.
His hands managed to brush the ball and hit it back in the water, but mostly just because of how little energy it had leaving the water. Of course, while the ball didn't have much energy. Gareth did. He'd been running full sprint before initiating his dive… and that energy didn't just leave him when the ball was hit back. Gareth tried digging his toes into the stone but it wasn't enough to stop him going over the edge.
Blue made use of this and shot the ball straight back out at the same place, but Burgandy was already rushing over. Unlike Gareth, she was fast enough to kick the ball back into the water, and was already turning around… but Blue was faster. She sent the ball speeding to the other end of the platform. Gareth had only just made it back onto the stone, and Burgandy was springing as fast as she could…
But perhaps she didn't need to. Burgandy didn't let up her sprint but she watched the ball as it was sent out by Blue, and Burgandy dug into her mana reserves. Then smashed her leg down on the platform, pushing the enchantment on her boots to the limit. Not to launch pillars of earth upwards… but to launch a pillar of it out the side starting at the corner. The stone went flying, and with the angle, the ball simply continued through the now empty space… off the edge and out of bounds. Blue looked on in horror, and reflexively shot out a bolt of water to catch it… that she quickly reeled back in just a moment after she'd launched it.
"TWO TO TWO. IT'S ALL TIED UP BETWEEN THE TEAMS. THIS NEXT POINT WILL BE THE DECIDER!" shouted Thyme as he snatched up the ball and then handed it off to Burgandy.
Gareth walked up to Burgandy and clapped her on the shoulder, "Damn, that was amazing. I'm not sure I would've spotted something like that,"
Burgandy nodded, but she was glaring down at her shoes. They were somewhat crispy. "Yeah… but I really pushed the enchantment on these shoes. I forced it to act a bit too far outside of its parameters and fried the mana channels. The enchantment on them is completely fucked now," grumbled Burgandy.
Gareth looked down and saw she was correct. He frowned at the sight. "That… but that shouldn't be the case right? What you didn't seem like stretching the enchantment all that much though… it was just changing the direction a bit, and normally you can manage that for these sorts of active enchantments," said Gareth.
Burgandy clicked her tongue and said, "Well yeah… but this is a bit more than that. I completely messed with the aiming, I also forced all the dirt away so it was completely 'empty' under the pillar. I also had to do all that while running and not using the shoes properly… plus they just aren't made from the best materials. I probably wasn't kind when shoving my mana through it either…"
Gareth nodded in understanding as he said, "Well, not sure if you'll be able to get an extra copy of them from Thyme once the round is over… but I'd say if you do it was worth it for the point. We're all tied up, we just need one more point to win this and that's much closer then I ever expected to get against Blue. You got any fancy ideas about how we get this last one?"
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