Chapter 49

A normal game of soccer in high school lasts a total of 80 minutes. Well, 90 minutes if you count the 10-minute halftime. Which, that second part, was what Dan really cared about. Ten minutes, after all, was enough to count as a short rest for his stats and would greatly refresh his stamina and other traits. Sure, it wasn’t perfect, but a renewal of over 30% of his stamina for only 10 minutes of sitting around, was a great boon.

That being said, as Dan tried, fruitlessly, to get the hang of auto-battle, he had a feeling even the short rest wouldn’t be enough for him. That first experiment, which blew through a fifth of his stamina in ten seconds, had hurt him. Sure, he’d scored a goal, but the cost had been extreme.

Even worse, that little play of his had totally backfired with regards to how the JV team was playing. Before, they only had two of their juniors playing, with the rest of the team being sophomores. The moment Dan had scored that goal. The moment he’d gone all Cristiano Ronaldo on the opposing team, the JV coach had made a decisive play. Apparently, the coach had decided to take away Sam’s early advantage instantly and replaced the other defenders on his side of the field with Juniors.

Which got a load of groans from Dan’s side of the team, and quickly ended the early celebration and jubilation he’d been receiving from his side of the field. The high fives, back pats, and ‘how the hell did you even do that’ turned into, ‘we’re doomed,’ and ‘way to go asshats.’ Additionally, Dan could tell Sam was going to have a stern talking to him for what he’d done but was waiting to pull him off the field until later on. Because, while the odds had just stacked more against their favor, the Freshman’s coach was competitive too, and wouldn’t risk pulling Dan just yet.

Unfortunately for Dan’s side of the field, the shift in defense in a direct result to Dan’s impressive opening play, had completely changed the feel, and energy, of the field. The JV squad had it out for Dan, and they now knew what he was capable of. Any player he approached, instantly passed the ball away. And they made sure if he got the ball, if he tried a breakaway, their veteran defense would lock him down, while their mid fielders covered any possible help he could seek.

It was frustrating. Crushingly so. Dan had been atop the world, marveling at his awesomeness. And now, with five minutes remaining in the first half, the score was 2 to 1, with the JV leading. Dan’s team had made it a across the midfield mark a few times, perhaps, but ever attempt was instantly thwarted. Now, they were playing defensively, for the last five minutes, trying their best to keep the JV team from furthering their lead anymore. They’d gone from their 3-3-4, and dropped into a 5-3-2.

Dan, having the highest stamina of all the players, was still playing mid, but it didn’t matter. They didn’t have enough forwards to do anything, they couldn’t pass around the physically stronger, faster, and more experienced Junior’s on the JV, and Dan was really getting tired of having to sprint from the attacking third portion of the field, on the JV side, all the way back to the defending third on his team’s side. Every single one of their damned defenders had the ability, he’d found, to accurately blast the ball to any of their players, all of whom were being careful to ensure they weren’t caught offsides.

Granted, trying to make the enemy team get an offsides call, while running a 5-3-2 was all but impossible. Especially given Dan’s teammates, by this time, were all sweating profusely, and a few were moving slower, and more lazily, than preferred. But, that was a problem for them and Sam to work through. Dan, just needed to do something, in these next 5 minutes.

He’d found, so far, that he could indeed toggle the effectiveness of auto-battle mentally before he activated it. Why the default was set so high as it was, he had no idea. He figured it was meant as a skill to be used only to overcome a challenge he’d normally be unable to. The fact he could toggle it down though, gave Syn’s statement on it merit. Dan felt anyone who actually went to some fantastical magical world, would use auot-battle to just farm up experience and kills from way low level foes. People did it all the time, after all, with bots in MMOs.

That being said, at a ‘normal’ level for auto-battle, which he felt was around 90-100percent of his normal output, his skills alone weren’t good enough to overcome the enemy team. And with their improved defenses and focus on him, his improved passing skills, which using auto-battle made them perfect, brilliant passes with zero telegraphing or chance for the enemy to stop, did absolutely nothing. Sure, he could get his teammates the ball, but they’d instantly lose it or find themselves with a man on them, stopping them dead in their tracks. His teammates, sadly, just didn’t have the physical levels or experience to deal with the Juniors.

Dan also noticed his auto-battle function seemed to prefer more offensive, explosive plays. Even if the passing game it could utilize was impressive, chances were, auto-battle was going to choose a more one on one playstyle. After all, Dan’s stats, his skills, were better than his teammates. Meaning he would try to utilize fancy footwork and jukes in order to get around the enemy defenses and keep from having the ball stolen. Which, at 100 percent in auto-battle, was possible, but sadly quickly shut down considering they were playing extremely cautious around him, and on heightened alert for such things.

Finally, Dan had tried to just blast some shots past the enemy defense any chance he got. A few rare breakaways had resulted in some rather long distance, reckless shots, and sadly, they’d missed. It was the nature of the game. Scoring without being at least within 20 yards of the goal was difficult. The further away, after all, the more time the goalie had to prepare for the incoming shot. And Dan could tell the JV team’s goalie was not about to let him get any freebies.

Which was why Dan had toggled auto-battle, mentally, up to its 200percent mark, and was waiting, watching, for the perfect opportunity to unleash it. He couldn’t let this game get out of hand. Not in the first half. If it were in his power to, he was going to make sure he could at the very least, tie it up. Even if it cost him precious stamina, to hell with it. He was about to get a short rest, and then he could just play defensively the remaining 40 minutes. Besides, he had no doubt trying to keep him shut down was wearing down the JV players. Meaning he might even get better openings in the second half. But only if he did what playing tennis with Peter had taught him. He needed to crush their mental game and make them uneasy for the second half. He needed to break their minds, so they’d make mistakes.

“Stop him.” One of Dan’s players called out, pulling his full attention to the player in question. The ball had just been stolen from one of the Freshman team’s forwards by the sweeper. Instead of passing it up field, like he’d been doing though, the Sweeper was moving, and fast. His eyes flashed with intensity, and there was a grin on his face. However, it wasn’t the sweeper Dan knew his teammate was calling about. Another of the defenders had broken away as well, rushing up the field with lightning-fast speed. Dan’s teammates were marked up on the forwards and midfielders of the JV team, but these two, on their mad dash, throwing away two of their valuable defenders, were unopposed.

Dan knew what they were doing. They were going to blast through the defenses and try to score one last point before the half was up. It was risky, sure, but they were doing what Dan had been trying to do. They were going to try and score and break his teams moral. A third point here, just before the half, would greatly crush his team’s hopes of making a comeback in the second half. A third point here, couldn’t be allowed.

“Screw it.” He muttered. An impressive defensive save could be just as empowering as scoring a point, and right now, his team needed it. He started a mad dash towards the Sweeper, and as he did, activated auto-battle. At 200percent, he knew his stamina would drain quickly. He could only keep it up for maybe 20 seconds without being overly reckless. But it was needed.

The moment he got the message it activated; his body practically flew. His muscles bulged, the world slowed, and it was as if adrenaline flowed into every fiber of his being. Colors intensified, his hearing strengthened, and around him, things that didn’t matter seemed to fade, while those he was focused on, came into brilliant clarity.

The poor Sweeper didn’t have a chance as Dan rapidly approached. Even as the Sweeper became aware of him, even as the Sweeper moved to pass, Dan was moving even quicker. He executed a slide tackle the likes of which he’d never attempted before.

Dan’s increased movement speed, the rapid rate at which auto-battle was utilizing his body and muscles, and the inhuman process rate for his mind, allowed the move to be executed. Otherwise, he was certain he would have fouled the sweeper. Which, sure, would have killed the score attempt, but wouldn’t have been favorable for his team.

Instead, his body quickly shifted from running, to sliding as he was twisted somewhat sideways, his body meeting the ground, his moment from a dead spring propelling him. Just as the JV player’s foot met the ball, just as the Sweeper tried to pass the ball away, Dan’s foot was there. But instead of a straight sweep, which would have caught the JV player, and probably broken something on him, given Dan’s speed and intensity, auto-battle directed his foot just right, so that it actually passed just above the Sweeper’s foot, connecting purely with the ball, sending it ridiculously high into the air.

Just like that, the score attempt was stopped, but Dan wasn’t. Auto-battle continued the momentum generated from the slide tackle, along with the direction of the foot, to build up force. One second, he was on the ground, his foot going skywards, the next he had executed a breakdancing move as his hands lifted his form off the ground, his rotating foot and leg tucking under him, allowing him to press off from the ground and jolt forward, moving back towards the JV side of the field.

The ball, still in midair, was falling towards the JV side of the field. The remaining defender was casually waiting under it, trying to judge its trajectory, in order to ensure he could get it back into play, but Dan wasn’t having any of that.

Auto-battle Dan ran, dead sprint, to the other side of the field. He was in the air, leaping, even as the ball started coming down, and his head whipped forward, blasting the ball past the defender towards the goal. The goalie, and defender, could hardly react as it flew towards them. However, the goalie did manage to react in time, and punched the ball out of the way. All of this, should have ended the point. It should have been done, but Dan, he wasn’t.

The punched ball, Dan had already seen the trajectory. And if he’d seen it, that meant Auto-battle knew what was going on as well. He spun past the defender, who was chasing after the ball as well, and with another reckless, impressive, probably should have been impossible move, Dan executed another jump. This time though, it was for something he definitely never should have tried. Something he’d never even thought of trying.

Dan, at 200percent, through auto battle, executed a flawless bicycle kick. The surprised goalie, stared, dumbstruck, as the ball flew with impossible force into the net, scoring Dan’s team their second goal, and bringing the score to an even 2-2.

He immediately excited out of auto-battle, as he smashed into the ground. His breathing heavy, his limbs burning. His stamina had dropped all the way from roughly 60 percent, all the way down to dangerously close to 25 percent. And yet, all he could think about, was how that was the greatest play he’d even done on the soccer field. Which was immediately followed by a rush of pain as the defender, who’d apparently not stopped his momentum even as Dan had leapt into the air, trampled across Dan’s stomach with his cleats. That, he thought as his mind processed everything, was definitely going to leave a mark.

Well, someone’s a bad sport. Syn snickered, and Dan had a feeling he was implying the defender had done that on purpose. Which, given how Dan’s stomach felt, he had to agree with. However, it was the cheering and clapping he could hear in the background of Syn’s, wherever he was, that really stood out. Sure, he hated the idea of being watched for entertainment, but that moment, definitely, was one he’d wish the world could see. That, had been epic.