Chương 53: Chapter 49: Why did you pick me?

The teams had a minute to talk strategy. As they drew into a rough circle, Severa said, "We're playing Power Rotation." Halma, a big, burly fellow, raised an eyebrow.

"Power? With him?" Fabrisse knew exactly what he meant. Power Rotation meant giving up the keeper and pushing everyone forward. There would be nobody sitting at the back. Larna, the girl with fizzing curly hair, glanced at him.

"Look, no offense, Kestovar, but maybe you should anchor. If something gets through, you can catch it… probably." Severa said, "No. He plays the flank." Larna stared at her.

"Seriously? He can barely channel. Cuman's going to go straight for that side."

"Then he'll learn to stand in the wind." That ended the discussion. Fabrisse remained just outside the circle, wishing they might at least include him in the conversation about what to do with Fabrisse Kestovar. Apparently, he had become a piece of equipment. Severa finally turned to him.

"You flank. Do not absorb. Redirect only. Understood?" He swallowed.

"Understood." They took their positions. Larna had been right. Cuman stood directly across from Fabrisse, close enough for them to make eye contact. He gave Fabrisse a smug little grin. The whistle blared. The silkball jerked into the air. Cuman was already moving, green sparks kicking up around his boots as the wind carried him forward. Fabrisse had barely registered that before Severa sent the ball skimming across to his side of the field. Her wind sparked white—resolve.

"Yours," she called. Yours? I can't conjure a gust! Cuman threw out an arm.

"By the rushing gale!" The rushing gale slammed into his chest. His feet left the ground and he landed flat on his back. The silkball rolled crookedly across the grass and went out of bounds. [DAMAGE TAKEN: Minor Back Pain]"Foul!" Instructant Aval barked.

"Cuman! That's player targeting! You want to disqualify yourself?" Cuman shrugged.

"He was in the way." Fabrisse groaned and pushed himself upright. Halma offered him a hand, all while eyeing Cuman.

"You alright?"

"I think so."

"Kestovar," Severa called.

"Stay on the flank. Redirect, don't absorb." Stillbrace could do that... if he had time to shape it properly. The ball would hit the dampened pocket and, theoretically, bounce rather than punch straight through it. The silkball came back into play, low toward his side. Fabrisse raised his arm and started Stillbrace. Yet, Severa's wind caught the ball before his glyph was even formed and sent it back to her. Fabrisse lowered his arm. So much for redirecting. He went back to his spot on the flank.

The next time the ball came his way, Severa got there before he did. Then she did it again. Fabrisse was beginning to question why she had put him on the flank at all. He hadn't touched the silkball once. Every time it came anywhere near him, Severa intercepted it before he had the chance. At one point, she even managed it without looking, sending a gust past Halma to knock the ball away from Fabrisse's side. There was, however, a fairly obvious problem with this strategy. They weren't scoring.

Larna couldn't get past Rhel often enough to threaten the net, while Halma kept mistiming his interceptions. Terrero had very little to do behind them. Cuman's team had quickly figured out that they only needed to worry about one side of the field.

"You think you can keep covering for him?" Cuman laughed.

"I'll just bypass you both." On the next play, Rhel moved farther back, almost to the edge of the regulation zone. Cuman pushed toward the center again, and Severa went with him. Rhel threw both hands forward. Amber flashed between his palms. The silkball went straight up, and it just kept going. Fabrisse stared. Nobody had sent it anywhere near that high all session.

"Out of my way, Chosen One." Cuman cleared the gap between their quadrants in a single jump and was past Fabrisse before he could react. Fabrisse spun around. What was he supposed to do with that? He'd barely seen Cuman coming. The silkball was starting to come back down. Cuman was already underneath it. There was nobody at the goal. Severa chanted, "The gale obeys." [SPELL DETECTED: Gale Severance — Rank???] The color code marked it as Rare. Low-ranked, too, judging by how short the mnemonic was.

Yet it did not behave like one. Green flooded through Severa's channel and struck Rhel's draft high above the field. His spell broke apart almost immediately. The silkball stopped short of Cuman and was thrown back the other way. Cuman shouted something, but Fabrisse couldn't hear a word of it. The ball came down toward Severa. She raised one hand and caught it, having moved perhaps two paces from the center. Then she turned and held the silkball out in front of her.

Wind gathered around her hand, with more and more spin, until Fabrisse could barely make out the ball inside it. She released it. The silkball crossed half the field. She had just taken a shot from forty meters. Terrero jumped late. He thrust out one hand and fired a tiny wind dart from his fingertip. His wind glowed charcoal, the color of fear. It caught the edge of the silkball just before it crossed the line. The ball changed course, striking the post as it bounced out into the grass. Several people shouted.

"No goal," Instructant Aval said. Still 0–0. Just over two minutes left. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. Cuman clenched his jaw so tightly his cheek twitched.

"You're kidding me." Terrero landed and sucked in a breath. For a moment, he simply stood there staring at the post. Terrero's good at blocking high angle shots. Does that mean… As Verryn came to retrieve the ball, Rhel leaned over to Cuman and whispered, "She caught that upper-altitude stream like it was a handle."

"I saw," Cuman growled at Severa.

"You little show-off. You think you can maintain your control for more than a minute?"

"I absolutely think so," Severa replied.

"Snobby narcissist. I'll smear the ball across your smug face," he gritted his teeth. Severa puffed her chest as Verryn brought the ball back into play.

"Is it narcissism if I actually am just better than everyone?" Her statement earned an 'oh' from the spectators. Fabrisse hadn't moved. Severa glanced at him once, then turned back to her other teammates.

"Resume your positions," she said. This wasn't working. He was a liability, and everyone on the field knew it, Severa most of all. She'd spent the entire match covering for him, and now Cuman's team knew exactly what to expect. He needed something. Preferably from the Eidralith. The quests had been rather helpful lately. Throw stones. Study stones. Find stones. There was usually something whenever he had an obvious problem standing in his way. He had a very obvious problem. It was almost like…

the artifact noticed bottlenecks. If he could trigger a quest and either upgrade his Stillbrace or unlock a spell that aided his movement, he might be able to contribute. If the Eidralith only stepped in when he genuinely couldn't progress any further, then perhaps he needed to prove—"Kestovar!" Larna shouted.

"Focus!" Fabrisse threw out his palm.

"Ivory stillness!" The glyph appeared just in time. The silkball hit it and bounced several meters away. Not toward anyone useful, unfortunately. The barrier dissolved. Aetheric Effectiveness: 49% Rhel casually flicked two fingers, guiding the loose silkball back under his team's control. That was rubbish. But at least he'd parried the ball right. The shield had formed. He still hadn't triggered a quest. He had to get involved. Maybe I can just step closer, just one step. Nobody's going to notice.

"Left flank!" Rhel shouted. The silkball came toward Fabrisse. Cuman moved with it, shoving his palm forward.

"By the rushing gale!" Oh. It's coming to me— His feet left the ground again. Stillbrace broke before the glyph could finish forming, and he came down, stumbling several steps. The silkball went straight past him. Severa raced over and caught it with a gust before it could go any farther. She stopped beside Fabrisse.

"Why are you here? What did I tell you?" Another gust knocked the ball away from her. Cuman came straight between them, laughing.

"Who's left?" Halma was left. He moved across to block him, throwing up a defensive current. Cuman passed right. Rhel was already there. He caught the silkball on amber wind and immediately sent it toward the net.

"Ride the eastern stream!" There was nobody between him and the goal. Fabrisse thought that was it.

"The gale obeys." Severa raised her hand. The silkball changed direction just before the line and missed the post by less than a meter. Half the class started talking at once.

"She cut it from there?"

"I thought wind spells had to originate near the caster!" So that's why we don't need a keeper. Severa retrieved the silkball without a word. She looked at Fabrisse only long enough to say, "Stay where you are." Then she turned away. The whistle blew again. Halma trapped the restart awkwardly. The first thing he did—as everyone expected—was push the silkball toward Severa. Rhel was waiting. He slipped between them on a cushion of air and stole the pass before it reached her.

"Push up!" Cuman barked.

"Verryn!" Verryn surged. The three of them spread across the field in a widening triangle. Pass. Pass. Pass. The silkball danced between them, each transfer smoother than the last. Every exchange accelerated, forcing Severa to move from one side of the field to the other. They're trying to overwhelm her. Cuman laughed.

"See you stop us if you don't know who's throwing the damn ball!" Another pass. Then another. The pace climbed until the silkball became little more than a white blur skipping between currents. Severa had told him to stay wide. But staying wide meant doing nothing. Halma noticed him drifting in and frowned. He didn't say anything. Good enough. He kept moving. One, two, three steps. Cuman exploded down the left. Larna rushed to meet him. Cuman twisted his wrist. The silkball shot diagonally across the field.

Verryn was already gliding into the opening. Severa turned. Too far. She won't reach it. Cuman definitely won't expect me. Fabrisse sprinted.

"Ivory stillness!" The shield caught the silkball before shattering. The barrier failed, but it bled enough momentum from the pass for Severa to recover and recollect it before it reached Verryn. Severa looked at him. He braced himself for another reprimand. Instead, she simply tossed the ball towards Halma.

"Forward." That was all. Stillbrace had worked. The shield had broken, but only after the silkball hit it. He just needed to focus on sending it somewhere useful afterward, while preserving his FP. It'd gone down to 24. He shouldn't keep running around aimlessly. For the next twenty seconds, Cuman kept coming down Fabrisse's side. This time, Fabrisse let him. Whenever Cuman pushed forward, Fabrisse stayed out of his path. Severa dealt with most of it, with Halma picking up whatever got past her.

It worked well enough. Cuman didn't score. Neither did they. Whenever Severa got the ball, she sent it away from Fabrisse's side. That left Larna as their only real option going forward, and Verryn had already started marking her closely. Twice Severa tried to get the ball through to her, and twice it came straight back. I have a plan. I just don't know if Severa will take it seriously. The next time Severa got the ball, Fabrisse waved at her. She looked over. He pointed at his own hand.

That was as much explanation as he was prepared to give. If she'd entertain passing to him, good. If she ignored him, also good. Slightly humiliating, perhaps, but survivable. Severa looked away, looking for Larna, who was trying to create any meaningful distance from Verryn and Rhel. Right. Fine. Cuman came at her.

"Mine now." Severa waited until he closed in… then she turned and sent the silkball toward Fabrisse. The ball travelled at a reasonable speed, unlike any of her other passes.

"Ivory stillness!" He formed the glyph at an angle. The silkball struck it and bounced forward, too weakly for his liking. Severa went past Cuman while he was still turning and reached the ball anyway. Cuman swore and hurried after her. Severa kept the ball moving down the flank with short bursts of wind, never giving him enough time to catch up. Near the goal, she sent it inside to Larna.

"Wind whips!" Larna struck it with a diagonal gust. The silkball missed the post by inches. A groan went through their side of the field. It had worked. [Quest Received: Trust the Current] Objective: Complete three successful wind deflections that immediately become allied possession. Progress: 0 / 3 Reward: +10 Air Thaumaturgy Mastery Passive Aetheric Skill: Nascent Resonance I Repeated practice of incomplete spellforms slowly strengthens elemental affinity. There it was. He'd successfully triggered the quest.

Severa glided back to position. As she passed him, she mouthed in a volume only he could hear, "What's your plan?"

"No… what's your plan? Why did you pick me?" It was getting confusing now. If she'd intended to humiliate him, she would've put way more force into that pass.

"You needed Air practice." She honestly still sounded pretty mad.

"That's it?"

"And stop being a scaredy-cat. Cuman Gollivur can't do anything but charge at you." Then she glided back to her position. The ball was back in play again. Across the field, Cuman was staring at him. He pointed two fingers at his own eyes, then at Fabrisse, and mouthed very slowly: I'm going to make your life miserable, rock witch. Oh, great. This was Severa's idea of punishment, using Cuman as a character-building activity. He'd rather she just insulted him outright.