Dominance Evolution System: Sweat, Sex, and Streetball

Chapter 312: Heroes vs Monsters

The sharp sound of the referee’s whistle screamed through the arena, cutting through all the noise. Right at that moment, Nash exploded upward. Thanks to his size, he jumped way higher than Ryan Miller without even struggling. With a quick flick of his wrist, he slapped the ball cleanly backward.

The fast break started right away.

Nia caught the ball while she was running. Her eyes scanned the court, and in just two seconds, she had the whole situation figured out. She looked at how the defense was set up, but she did not rush in like she used to do back at her debut.

She shifted her steps based on where Nash was standing and zipped a sharp, fast pass over to Alicia, who was waiting on the right wing.

Alicia caught the ball and planted her feet, pretending she was going to take a deep three pointer shot. John Hunter flew toward her, his glasses flashing as he jumped too early to try and block the shot. But Alicia changed her mind. She stopped the motion, bounced the ball once on the floor, and whipped it right back inside to Nash.

Blaze Griffin immediately threw himself into the paint. He slammed his sneakers into the wooden floor, getting into a low, predatory stance. He wanted to force Nash into a one on one fight.

"Come on, Nash! Let me see what you’ve got!" Griffin roared. He looked impatient, his eyes burning because he really wanted to break through the Blacklist’s monster.

Nash did not change his face at all. He just looked blank. He dropped his hips and suddenly drove toward the left side with lightning speed.

Got you! Griffin thought. He shifted his weight fast, trying to cut off the lane with his phenomenal explosivity. He was ready to crash into Nash with a violent collision.

But then, his chest hit nothing but empty air.

"What?!" Griffin gasped. His eyes went wide in total shock because his momentum carried him forward into a void. The ball was already gone.

The crazy part was that Nash had not even moved his upper body. His shoulders stayed perfectly straight, and his eyes were locked on the rim. With a single, super fast snap of his wrist, he had launched the ball like a missile. The ball flew through the air at high speed, slicing through the middle of the Falcons’ defense before anyone could even blink. It landed right in the hands of Alicia, who was standing completely open on the perimeter.

Alicia did not waste a single millisecond. She was already in her favorite spot for shooting. But John Hunter recovered with scary intensity. His rectangular glasses flashed as he went into a sort of aggressive trance. He threw his entire body into the lane, stretching his arms out as far as they could go.

"Not on my watch!" John hissed.

Alicia just ignored him. Her form was perfect, almost like a machine. She jumped and let the ball go. The ball spun through the air, charting a high arc toward the ceiling, but then it hit the back of the rim with a loud noise.

*Clang!*

Under the rim, Ryan had a perfect position. He reached his hands up to grab the rebound for the defense.

Suddenly, a dark flash jumped into his space. Jaz erupted from the baseline like a shell from a cannon. Her jump was so explosive that it left Ryan standing there, frozen to the ground. With a loud, angry snarl, she leaped up and snatched the ball right out of the air.

She did not even wait to land back on the floor; while she was still up in the air, she slammed the ball into the hoop with a level of violence that was honestly terrifying to watch.

BOOM!

The entire hoop shook from the impact. It was a total explosion of strength from a Power Forward.

Up in the VIP seats, Snow was leaning forward against the security barrier.

"Well, damn..." He muttered, narrowing his eyes. "He isn’t fighting alone."

On her side, Chloe’s fingers stopped moving over her digital tablet. She just froze there. The light from the screen made her face look really pale, almost white.

"... what kind of pass was that?" she whispered to herself.

Her eyes were wide open, and she could not stop rewatching the trajectory line on her mind. It looked completely wrong, or maybe too perfect, and it really messed with her head.

Down on the Falcons’ bench, the happy energy died instantly. Fred, Frank, and Kyle were actually trembling. Shane stopped making his crude, flirty jokes to the girls on the sidelines, and his mouth hung half-open.

"Rain was not lying..." Frank whispered. "That was fucking fast..."

The first quarter turned into a total brawl. On the court, Blacklist was using their strongest setup. Nash was the anchor in the center, acting like a shadow that held everything together. Nia was the point guard, running the plays. Jaz was the power forward, basically tearing up the paint area. Alicia was locking down the shooting guard spot, and there was this random dude playing the number.

On the other side, the Falcons had brought out their best starters. Shane was the point guard managing the whole floor. John was the shooting guard, guarding the perimeter. Griffin was the power forward, bringing a lot of explosive energy. Then there was Rain, who played like a "hidden electron," sliding around in the shadows where nobody could see him. Finally, Ryan Miller was the center, acting as the silent wall in the paint.

Blacklist 12 - 8 Falcons

Nia brought the ball up the court. She was not just running; her mind was working like a computer, analyzing where the defenders were and where the holes were in their setup.

When Shane tried to put pressure on her and steal the ball, she saw it coming. She did a perfect crossover and used a quick fake with her head to trick the players coming to help on the baseline.

I can see the gaps, Nia thought to herself. She was breathing steadily, keeping her cool. Nash does not even need to move. If I just cut right here, the lanes will open up on their own.

She threw a quick no-look pass right into Jaz’s hands. Jaz caught it perfectly, spun around Ryan’s attempt to block him, and laid the ball in off the glass. Over on the Blacklist bench, Victoria lowered her sunglasses just a tiny bit. She was watching how Nia made decisions so smoothly.

"Good play, girl," Victoria whispered to herself. She gave a small nod, which was a rare sign that she actually approved of what she saw.

This was the perfect way to shut up everyone who doubted her in the underground basketball circuit. This one game proved she was becoming a top-tier player, a real queen of the court. Her basketball brain was growing at a crazy speed, making her a genius who could control the speed of the whole game.

Blacklist 18 - 14 Falcons

On the next play, Nia tried to set up a pick-and-roll with Jaz, but suddenly, the vibe changed. Out of nowhere, Rain appeared right in the middle of her pass. This invisible shrimp of a player did not even look at her; he just flashed his hand for a split second and knocked the ball away.

It went straight into Shane’s hands, and the Falcons immediately started a fast break.

"Dammit!" Nia hissed. She started sprinting back to defense.

It felt way too similar to when she played against Nash’s unpredictable moves. But then, Nia bit her bottom lip and her blue eyes looked fierce.

No. Thinking that is an insult. Nash is way better than anyone in this gutter. I will not let some straw-looking copy pretend to be him!

Meanwhile, Griffin was practically foaming at the mouth. He was sticking to Nash every single second of the game.

"Stop hiding behind your girls, Blaze!" Griffin shouted. His face was red from sweat and anger as he bumped his chest against Nash’s hard torso. "Face me one on one! Stop playing the babysitter and actually look at the hoop!"

Nash just stood there like a wall, totally unbothered. He refused to play the hero or try to do something flashy. He just stayed in the low post, taking the hits and casually passing the ball back to Nia. Nia kept the offense running in a perfect, painful rhythm for the Falcons.

Frustrated, the Falcons changed their plan. Erica gave some silent hand signals. Shane and John started doubling up on Jaz and Alicia, squeezing them so they could not shoot and blocking the paths Nia usually used to pass the ball.

Blacklist 24 - 18 Falcons

Up in the VIP seats, Chloe frowned. She was looking at her digital screen, feeling really confused.

"This does not make any sense tactically," Chloe muttered, tapping her stylus against her chin. "Why is Erica leaving Nash completely open? She is guarding the girls, but she is letting that monster roam the floor without anyone double-teaming him."

"Because it is a trap," a smooth, nice voice said, cutting through her thoughts.

Chloe gasped and spun around, surprised. Leaning against the edge of the luxury box with a bright smile was Mirage, the charismatic Small Forward and star player of the Phantoms, one of the rival conference’s top team. Known on the circuit for his freakish adaptability, his blond hair was perfect, and his hazel eyes looked amused and curious.

"Mirage? What are you doing here?" Chloe asked. "I thought you had an advertising shoot in the Spires today."

"I canceled it," Mirage chuckled. He stepped closer to her and slid his hands into his pockets, his eyes locked on the game. "The agency can wait. When I heard some thug from the gutter was making a joke out of the league, I had to see it. Plus, I love watching pretty girls sweat under pressure."

He looked at Victoria on the bench for a second with a hungry look before looking back at the court.

"Look at the game, Chloe. It is actually quite beautiful."

"What do you mean?" she asked, looking back down at the game.

"Erica is not stupid," Mirage explained, sounding like a pro analyst now. "She knows Blaze is the problem... I mean, the real blaze, from Blacklist. Man, this will be hard... So, anyway, we know that normally, you would mark him, but the Falcons are doing the opposite. By choking out the sexy girls, they are cutting off the people Blaze wants to pass to. They are giving him all the space he wants to bait his ego. They want him to stop playing as a team and try to go one-on-five, so they can all jump on him at once. It is smart, but playing with fire around a beast like that usually ends with you getting burned."

Down on the court, the trap finally closed.

Nia was trapped in a corner by Shane and John. She had nowhere to pass. Feeling the emergency, Nash took two big steps forward, leaving his spot to help her out near the top of the key.

"Nia, here!" Nash shouted in his deep voice.

Nia threw the ball toward him, but her timing was off by a tiny bit. Rain, that phantom shrimp, flashed through the passing lane from a blind spot again. He caught both Nash and Nia off guard, and his fingertips tipped the ball away cleanly.

"Got it!" Shane yelled, grabbing the loose ball.

The counter-attack was lightning fast. The Falcons sprinted down the court like a movie reversal. Alicia tried to run back to stop them, hoping to see the NPC stopping the counter, but the plug NPC was useless and was left far behind in the dust. Shane drove hard, pulling Alicia away from the center, and then threw a high, perfect lob toward the rim.

"The real Blaze is clearing the board!" Griffin roared.

Blaze Griffin flew into the air like a wild predator. He grabbed the ball at the highest point of his jump. With a burst of pure rage, he slammed it through the hoop so hard the glass shook.

BOOM!

Blacklist 24 - 20 Falcons

Griffin landed hard, his sneakers skidding on the floor. He was breathing heavily and looked straight at Nash with a wild, winning stare. But the guy didn’t just stop after that loud, powerful dunk.

He stayed right in the way of Nash, his chest moving up and down as he breathed hard, his Falcons jersey completely soaked with sweat. You could tell just by looking at him that he was feeling himself full of a destructive kind of confidence.

He basically blocked Nash from moving any further down the court, staring up into the giant’s green eyes with a look that was fierce and full of heat.

"I don’t give a damn about Erica’s plan or your team!" Griffin yelled. His voice echoed all over the wooden floor. "All I want is a real fight! So stop acting like a babysitter for your girls and let the beast out! I didn’t come all the way to this place just to face a lion in a cage!"

For a moment, everything went weirdly quiet. The other players on both teams just blinked, looking at Griffin like he was crazy. To be honest, that whole dramatic speech felt totally out of place. In the Underleague, things are usually cold, business-like, and violent, not like some movie. Even the NPCs from Blacklist looked confused.

Before Nash could even make a face, John and Shane appeared out of nowhere at Griffin’s sides. The captain, John, grabbed the rookie by the shoulder of his jersey. At the same time, Shane grabbed the waistband of Griffin’s pants and started dragging him backward by force.

"Shut the hell up, Griffin! You are being incredibly cringe," Shane hissed, hitting him on the back of the head with a loud thwack. "Get your head out of your manga books and get back on defense!"

"Seriously, just wrap it up," John muttered. He pushed his glasses up with a dark look on his face. "You are embarrassing the whole conference. Just get back into your zone."

Griffin started sputtering, trying to wiggle out of his teammates’ grip so he could keep screaming. He completely ruined his own cool moment as he was hauled away across the half-court line.

*Swish.*

Suddenly, a sharp, violent ripping sound sliced through the air of the arena.

The whole stadium froze. The referee did not even blow the whistle, but every single person on the court and in the stands snapped their heads toward the Falcons’ basket. The orange leather ball had just gone through the net with absolute, brutal perfection. The white nylon mesh was still rippling from the force of the ball.

A three-pointer, right through the net.

Blacklist 27 - 20 Falcons

A heavy, scary silence fell over the thousands of fans who had been roaring in the Sector Central arena. Nobody had even seen the shot happen. Nobody had even noticed a player moving to shoot. The entire Falcons defense had been too busy trying to drag Griffin back to his spot to notice anything else.

Slowly, the players turned their eyes toward the far baseline.

Nash was standing there, completely still, in the exact spot where Griffin had left him. He was twenty-eight meters away from the hoop. He had not even stepped into the front-court. He was leaning back a little bit, his right hand still frozen in the air, his wrist snapped forward at a jagged, casual angle. It was not a normal shooting form. He did not jump, he did not have a high arc, and there was no proper set point. It looked exactly like a guy who got bored and just flicked a rock across a river.

His face did not look happy or triumphant. He just looked deeply bored and annoyed by all the noise around him.

Nash exhaled. His right arm dropped back to his side as he stared at the shocked rookie with his green eyes.

"I keep wondering why I have so many goddamn fans on the court..." Nash rumbled. "But I don’t have any interest in men."

Griffin’s jaw dropped. His knees practically locked up as that casual insult hit him.

Nash took one heavy step forward. His massive six foot ten inch frame cast a long, scary shadow across the wooden floor. He locked his green eyes right into Griffin’s wide eyes.

"You wanted a real challenge, boy?" Nash whispered. A slow smirk finally spread across his face. "You are in for a hell of a ride."

[Zone State Activated]