Dominance Evolution System: Sweat, Sex, and Streetball

Chapter 313: Heroes vs Monsters(2)

The whistle for the second quarter had barely stopped ringing in everyone’s ears before the vibe inside the arena shifted.

It went from exciting to just... suffocating. The System’s screen had disappeared, but it left behind a monster with an aura pressing down on everyone’s chest.

[Zone State: All Stats x 2.]

Up in her box, Chloe just froze. Her hand was shaking so badly that she unconsciously dropped the stylus she was using. She didn’t even try to pick it up; she was too shocked.

From her pov, the heat map of the court was turning a bright, aggressive red, and all that heat was centered on one single man.

Down on the Falcons’ bench, Erica let out a sharp gasp. She instinctively put her hand over her throat, feeling a wave of pure panic crawling around her throat. The pressure coming off that giant didn’t just feel heavy anymore, it felt like it could actually kill someone.

Nash wasn’t just moving faster now; it was like he already knew what was going to happen. He was moving across the floor like he could see the future, knowing exactly where everyone was going before they even took a step.

Shane brought the ball up the court, gripping the ball so hard, trying his best to keep the Falcons’ offense steady. He was their point guard and the main guy to handle the ball. He was a veteran who had dealt with plenty of tough pressure in the Underleague, so he thought he could handle it.

But as soon as he crossed the half-court line, Nash was already there.

The giant’s glowing green eyes locked onto him, and Shane felt his legs turn into jelly. That predatory look in Nash’s eyes actually made Shane’s brain freeze for a second. Before Shane could even realize he was in trouble, Nash did a sudden, amazing cross-step move.

His speed was so explosive that it actually made a whistling sound through the air. With a perfectly clean swipe of his massive hand, Nash stole the ball right out of Shane’s grip without even touching him.

Nash’s movement was so fast that it actually sent Shane on his ass, his sneakers sliding across the floor, and he landed flat on his ass, looking completely stunned.

"Shane!" John yelled, trying to slide over to help his teammate, but Nash was already a flash of motion.

The giant drove forward, like an unstoppable force. He wasn’t just playing Breakball; he was basically taking the Falcons apart piece by piece. When Ryan stepped up to protect the paint, Nash suddenly slowed down so fast it broke Ryan’s balance.

It was a textbook ankle breaker that left Ryan stumbling blindly into the dust. Before Griffin could even get his hands up to stop him, Nash didn’t even look at the hoop. He whipped his right hand back in a fast motion, throwing a laser pass that sliced right through the defense.

The ball sailed high into the air in a perfect line, on the territory of another monster of Blacklist: Jaz. She exploded upward from the baseline, grabbed the ball at the highest point of her jump, and slammed it down into a shaking alley-oop.

BOOM!

The whole arena went wild. People were screaming and camera flashes were going off everywhere. The crowd watched with stars in their eyes as Nash showed off just how terrifyingly good he was at everything.

On the next play, John tried to crowd his space to stop him. Nash just stepped back behind the three point line. His shooting motion was quick, kind of careless, and felt almost like a machine.

Swish, a perfect three-pointer from nine meters out.

When it was time for defense, Nash recovered instantly. He chased down Sam on a breakaway, rising up behind him like an eclipse to pin the ball hard against the glass. Then, he immediately launched another laser pass to Alicia, who was open.

He was everywhere, dominating the rebounds, splitting the defense, and controlling the game like Breakball machine.

This was the beast they all came to watch.

On the Blacklist bench, Victoria watched all of this, with a slow smile creeping across her lips as she leaned back against the bench. She knew her man would carry the team just like he had carried her ass yesterday.

Meanwhile, on the other side, Erica felt like she was drowning in total despair. Her chest was heaving, and her eyes were wide and unfocused as she stared at the destruction. The math and algorithms she usually used to find weaknesses were completely breaking. The numbers just didn’t make any sense.

His reaction time has dropped by fifty percent, Erica’s brain melted. She felt a cold sweat soak through her collar. His stamina isn’t even going down. It is like he has an endless pool of energy.

The horrible truth was harder to swallow: they were suffering from success. Her "Cage Trap" strategy had actually worked perfectly in theory. They had successfully isolated Nash, cutting off his teammates and forcing him to play alone. But they had totally misjudged how dangerous the predator was.

They had intentionally unleashed a monster, with the idea of opening the game, but the beast was more terrifying than anything the Underleague had ever seen, and way more than they were prepared for.

"Time! Timeout!" Erica shouted, her voice cracking with desperation as she waved her arms wildly at the scorer’s table.

The buzzer went off, and the Falcons players trudged back to their bench. They looked absolutely wrecked.

Erica’s hands were shaking as she grabbed her whiteboard, her fingers barely gripping the edge. She glanced over at Fred and Frank. They were first-year recruits, and just looking at the court made them tremble.

"Fred, Alex, get ready," Erica ordered. Her voice sounded tight and frantic, like she was panicking inside while trying to put her broken team back together. "Shane, John, you need to breathe. We have to rotate the guard line just to slow him down. Alex, you are going in at small forward. We need some real muscle to slow this monster down. We cannot let him drive the lane cleanly. If he gets past the perimeter, just wrap him up! Do whatever it takes!"

But when the timeout ended and the players walked back onto the floor, it was clear that strategy was not going to save them. Fred had this empty, dazed look in his eyes. It was the look of someone who knew it was over.

They were basically in a meat grinder, and there was no way out of it. Nash was already standing at the center line, his green eyes glowing through the haze of the court, just waiting to finish the execution.

Blacklist 38 - 22 Falcons

Alex walked straight up to Griffin. Griffin was wiping sweat from his face, his chest heaving because he was so frustrated he could barely breathe.

"Get your head in the game, Tiger," Alex hissed, as she slapped his shoulder hard to wake him up. "Stop chasing him like an amateur. Use your weight, hold your position, and force him into the physical grid. I did not train you to stand there looking like a lost cub."

Griffin bared his teeth, his amber eyes locking onto hers. Her words worked like a shot of adrenaline straight into his veins. He felt the heat coming back.

"I am going to break him, Alex. Just watch me," he muttered.

The play started again, and the game turned into a brutal war. The intensity was crazy. Nash kept warping the space around him, drawing multiple defenders toward him just by being there. He had this presence that just sucked everyone in. Suddenly, the whistle blew for a shooting foul on Jaz, and all the frantic movement on the court froze instantly.

Standing near the free-throw line, Alex straightened her back. She used the back of her wrist to slowly wipe a thin layer of sweat from her amber forehead. Her eyes were sharp, like a cat’s, and she looked right through the humid air of the arena, past the players, straight at the Blacklist bench.

Victoria.

Sitting, she had her legs crossed elegantly, looking completely calm and like she was just waiting for halftime to give a biscuit to her beast. Behind her sunglasses, Victoria’s eyes seemed to be locked on Alex.

So... you finally did it, Alex thought to herself. You found your monster.

Victoria just looked back, her face showing no emotion at all.

Back on the floor, the Falcons were so obsessed with stopping Nash and his Zone State that they completely forgot about everyone else. This opened up a massive, catastrophic hole in their defense. And Nia was more than ready to take advantage of it.

Nia felt completely free, handling the ball with a scary kind of confidence, her eyes mapping out all the open spaces Nash had left behind while he dragged Griffin and Ryan toward the block.

"Alicia! Baseline!" Nia shouted.

Nia did a lightning-fast dribble behind her back to shake off Fred, then threw a crisp, overhead bullet pass that flew right over Griffin’s outstretched arms. The ball landed perfectly in Alicia’s hands.

Alicia was already moving. After that speech Victoria gave them in the hangar, Alicia had changed. She wasn’t just a good shooter anymore; she had become a fucking cold-blooded sniper.

Her form was perfect, like a machine, shoulders square and the ball released from a point so high it was almost impossible to block.

Swish.

The ball went through the net without even touching the rim.

On the very next play, the combination between the two Blacklist girls was even worse for the Falcons. Nia drove hard into the lane, pulling all the defenders toward her. Then, she leapt into the air and threw a blind, mid-air hook pass backward into the deep corner. Alicia didn’t even have to move her feet. She caught the ball, her eyes locked onto the hoop with an accuracy that made her feel untouchable.

Swish.

"What the fuck, I thought his team was his weakness!" John yelled. His glasses slipped down his nose because he was so frustrated. Alicia had just hit her third deep shot in a row, and the net was still rippling.

Alicia turned back toward her half of the court. A confident, possessive smile broke across her face as she gave Nia a quick, hard high-five. They weren’t just side characters anymore. They were the executioners of Nash’s plan, using every single inch of freedom the giant gave them to bury the Falcons alive under a mountain of points.

Blacklist 49 - 28 Falcons

Backed into a corner, the Falcons decided to bet all on their secret card: the Shrimp King.

Rain was so quiet and stealthy that he just glided right through the gaps in Blacklist’s defense without anyone even noticing he was there.

In fact, despite being the key in most of the points won, no one but Nia really payed attention to him. But even for her, his absence of presence in a fast game was a real pain in her polished ass.

On the next play, she drove toward the hoop and passed the ball back inside to reset. Suddenly, Rain appeared out of nowhere right behind Nash. He moved fast, reaching out to swipe a loose ball and immediately firing a laser of a pass toward Griffin.

But Nash had what you would call a harem of a vision, which basically meant he could see everything happening on the court and process every detail.

Without even turning his body, Nash just reached out with one solid palm and smacked the ball away. He shut down Rain’s whole plan before it even started.

In a split second, Nash used the momentum from that block to flick a super fast pass straight to Jaz. Jaz took off from the baseline, jumping so high it looked like she was flying. She soared right over Ryan’s outstretched arms and smashed the ball into the hoop.

BOOM!

Up in the VIP seats, Snow’s dark eyes were burning with a mix of jealousy and excitement. He ground his teeth together, watching Nash move. Nash was playing with a wild, street-style flow that was just as instinctive as Snow’s own style.

"Damn it... wish I could play," Snow whispered, gripping the metal railing. He looked like he wanted to jump down onto the court right then and there just to tear Nash apart.

On their side, Chloe and Mirage were staring down at the court. They looked completely stunned by how big the gap was between the two teams. Mirage let out a slow whistle. The arrogant look he usually had on his face was completely gone.

"Holding that monster in a one on one is basically impossible, Chloe," Mirage said, tugging at the collar of his jacket. His eyes were wide as he processed what he was seeing. "He has way too many high-level skills. That guy will literally swallow anyone alive, no matter who he is playing against. Maybe even Seth."

Chloe nodded quickly, her pink hair swaying. Her fingers were moving fast across her digital tablet, trying to fix the data models she had made, which were now completely wrong.

"Exactly! That is why we cannot let him play alone! Erica is doing a big mistake, you have to make sure he never even touches the ball!"

"No, you are missing the point," Mirage replied, his face becoming serious as he frowned. "Against a monster like him, Erica’s plan to contain him is the only way to actually do it. Because just like you said, you cannot stop him. Nobody can."

Blacklist 58 - 34 Falcons.

Mirage frowned, his eyes darkening as he watched Nash cross the half-court line.

"The only real plan is to just let him run. You have to force him to carry the whole team by himself... until he just runs out of energy."

With only two minutes left before halftime, things took a weird turn. Nash’s stats suddenly started to drop. The pressure he was putting dropped, and he casually turned off his heavy offensive drive and slid back into a more passive role.

He stopped trying to drive to the hoop or force shots from the outside. He was happy just staying in the paint, managing the defense, and letting Nia and Jaz finish the plays.

The crowd noticed the change. Thousands of fans started whispering as Nash slowed down, not even breaking a sweat. To the people watching, it made sense. Blacklist was winning by a lot, so they were just saving their energy for the second half.

But to Griffin, this felt like a slap in the face.

The red-haired power forward stopped dead in his tracks. His eyes were bloodshot and his whole body was shaking with rage. He didn’t think Nash was just "saving energy." In Griffin’s head, this was the ultimate insult. It was like Nash was looking right through him, treating him like a tiny bug that wasn’t even worth the effort to squash.

He came for the beast, he had challenged it, and when the beast answered, he became invisible. And now, Nash had decided that Griffin wasn’t worthy of his full power.

"He is holding back..." Griffin muttered, grinding his teeth hard. "This bastard is underestimating me!"

Driven by pure anger, Griffin pushed himself past his limits. With adrenaline flooding his muscles, he tore down the floor with crazy speed.

He smashed right through a screen set by Jaz and blew past Nia with an explosive burst of speed that caught all of Blacklist by surprise. He was like a runaway train, a wild beast charging straight for the rim.

With one second left on the clock, Griffin leaped into the air with a loud animalistic roar. He cocked the ball back with both hands, eyes locked on the rim, pouring everything he had into a final, vengeful dunk to save his pride.

"...!!!"

Nash was already waiting for him at the top.

The titan rose from the block without any effort at all. His massive body met the rookie at the highest point of his jump.

Nash didn’t even flinch when Griffin’s whole body weight crashed into his chest. With the cold look of an executioner, Nash brought his giant right palm down on the ball, stopping Griffin’s momentum instantly.

SMACK!

The block was so violent and heavy that it slammed the ball right out of Griffin’s grip. The orange leather spun and bounced against the floor.

BZZZZZZZZT!

The halftime buzzer screamed through the arena.

Griffin collapsed onto the hardwood, his sneakers sliding as he lost his balance. He lay there, chest heaving, staring up at the ceiling with a hollow, destroyed look in his eyes. His muscles ached, but his pride was slowly turning to dust.

Nash stood over him, looking perfectly fine. His body cast a long shadow over the fallen rookie.

"What goddamn wall did you honestly think you were going to break, boy?" Nash murmured.

Blacklist 64 - 40 Falcons