“Pass the ball, pass the ball!”

“Hoarder!”

“You ******!”

“That’s a foul, Jana are your eyes even open! You are the referee.”

“Be impartial, stop favoring the other side!”

“Mwana, pass the ball.”

“Foul foul!”

“Wallop them, destroy them, tear them to shreds!”

It was hectic! The ten players were scampering all over the place while the audience had already started cheering for their respective sides. The young children in the village had their own informal Hookball tournament and presently, the two teams playing could be considered sort of a semi-final match.

Mwana had the ball at his feet, running after it as fast as he could. One could only make contact with the ball once at a time with either their hands or feet. Maji 2 tried to intercept Mwana but he could barely perceive his movement. He didn’t even understand how the other got past him.

After reaching 11 Steps in an Instant in his footwork, Mwana’s movement speed was at the top of his age group. ‘The Center Point is mine!’ However, he celebrated too early. Just as he was about to reach it, a green blur even faster than him was already standing there and received the ball in his arms before hitting it towards the North Hook! A 5 pointer!

For a moment, everything was silent but right before the ball flew onto the hook, a golden light intercepted it. With a sideways spin, Mwanga arrived in front of their team’s hook bathed in gold, and with a mighty kick, he redirected the ball towards the opposing side. The ball was so fast that it looked like golden light had shot out all the way to the South Hook.

However, it was intercepted once again! The tall Kiboko had jumped lightly but that was enough to launch him more than 5 meters into the air. He returned it! Mwanga who had just been mid-air was already falling. He wouldn’t be able to stop the returning ball as by the time he reached the ground and jumped again, it would be too late.

As the ball neared the North Hook once again, Mwana pushed himself to his limits. ‘I have to correct my mistake! I lost the ball at the Center Point to Duma so if they score, I’ll be blamed.’ He moved with extreme speed towards the ball but beside him was another person just as fast as him. Out of everyone present, Duma was the only one who could keep up with him. However, Duma’s intention was to hinder Mwana from intercepting the ball. The audience of little boys and girls were already going crazy with excitement. The match had just started yet it was so ‘heated’.

Duma’s sprint was incredibly fast. It was so fast that the air was almost compressed around him. His figure was barely visible as he shuttled across the ground only seeming like a green haze. His body leaned forward almost horizontal to the ground. His back was still and steady while his joints moved flexibly like a cheetah on the hunt. From the Center Point which he previously occupied, he caught up to Mwana despite the latter starting the sprint after him!

A fast ordinary warrior could cover 10 meters in a second and warriors with access to natural energy and corresponding speed enhancement techniques were obviously faster. 100 steps in an Instant was just a basic technique. It required no special training materials or comprehensive skills and any random villager could learn it. However, even at a mere 10 steps in an Instant, a warrior could already run at speeds of a third the speed of sound!

Mwana was already at the 11th step yet Duma could catch up to him in a fraction of time. At that moment, Duma disappeared from Mwana’s vision making the latter’s heart beat in trepidation. When all hope seemed lost for Mwana, Tembo who was in front of the two reacted sending Mwana a quick signal.

In an instant, Duma had slid towards Mwana at extremely fast speeds aiming to trip him up but the latter was already in the air narrowly evading the sweep! Mwana’s second step was on Tembo’s locked palms before Tembo launched him high in the air behind him with his great elephant-like strength. The ball was intercepted! The audience went mad! There was a mixture of cheering and cursing from fans of each side.

Professional Hookball was far more complex than the version the village children were playing. The rules were also far more complicated as the field would have more than 5 hooks while the version that Mwana and his friends played only had 2 hooks. The ball itself would have a hole on one end where it could latch onto the hooks.

In the professional version, there were Passes which were a foot wide and guarded by the Keepers and each would give 1 Pass Point for passing the ball through them. However, scoring the hook would give more points called Hook Points with 1 hook point being equivalent to 4 pass points. The Hooks did not have any Keepers but were guarded by 2 Defenders each. A team would also have a Lead Attacker, a Center Pointer and a Cross Pointer but the version being played by Mwana and his friends obviously did not have enough players for that.

Previously, Duma and Mwana had competed for the Center Point where only 1 person could occupy it at a given time. Everyone aimed to occupy it especially for the Center Pointers as a score from the Center Point was worth 5 Hook points. However, the cross pointer shots that Mwanga and Kiboko let off were each worth 7 Hook points making them much more lethal. At their expertise, once the ball was shot out, it was a guaranteed score as long as nobody intercepted it.

Despite the hole in the ball being small, everyone on the field was already at the third level of martial practice. All these children had gone past the second level of quenching and strengthening their muscles and had already entered the third level, skin hardening.

10 minutes later, the match was nearing its end. At this point, Mwana’s team, the Mbwa Motos which could be translated as the ‘Hot Dogs’, were already in the lead. Predictably, a certain individual had caused trouble the entire time.

“Foul foul foul!”

“Duma! Are you working for the enemy to sabotage us?”

“Jana, you *****, that was a foul and you clearly saw it.”

Maji 1 had already cried foul more than a hundred times by the 10 minute mark. He would try all manner of dirty tactics even pretending to trip and fall whenever he was near an opponent so as to cry ‘foul’. At this point everyone was already used to him and decided to ignore him. Some of the audience even started jeering and cursing at him.

Maji 1’s already sweaty face looked extremely vexed as if he was the victim. Hearing the audience cheering for his opponents and jeering at him while the ball was in his reach, a cunning glint went through his eyes. He turned towards the left side of the field as if to strike at the North Hook, before aiming and shooting. The ball buzzed through the air and as Mwana’s team was busy guarding their hook, no one intercepted it as it shot into the crowd felling approximately 5 boys and girls.

Everything went silent before chaos erupted. ‘This match is over,’ Mwana thought while panting. His body was sweating buckets and his feet were full of dust. ‘Mother would be so mad if she saw me this way especially with these clothes on. I have to clean up again before the ceremony.’ As expected, Maji 1 was run off the field as several indignant boys and girls poured out of the sidelines after him. However, it seemed he was prepared for this as they could barely see the tip of his clothes when they reached where he had been standing a moment earlier. ‘He ran so fast!’

With the culprit gone and his team out of the match, another team was quickly formed from the children in the sidelines. The game resumed but not for long!