Gary had already been doing well in the game without having to use charging heart. This was mostly due to the power of the moon; otherwise, he would have still fallen slightly behind the athletic students, but now with Charging heart active and the power of the moon Gary was at his strongest.
Since Blake had luckily managed to score a point, it was time for Westbridge to kick off the ball again.
“Coach Root, let me do it.” Gary raised his hand asking for permission.
With how things were going, Mr Root didn’t really care. It was obvious that Eton High would put more people on Blake now, leaving virtually no chance for a comeback. Blake or Gil didn’t voice any objection so the teacher just allowed the high schooler to do as he wished.
Getting ready, Gary dropped the ball, and booted it as hard as he could. He had powered all of his frustration into kicking the ball and didn’t hold back. The ball went high in the air, and further than any of Blake’s kicks and down so far, it had gone so far some people even thought it was going to hit the try line. In the end, it was a few meters short.
Sren had run all the way to the back but even with his speed he was unable to get back in time to catch it.
“Did you see that kick? I don’t even think I’ve seen that in professional Rugby games.” One of the parents commented.
“Well, it’s a smaller pitch, but that was definitely an impressive kick.” Another added.
What some of the players at Eton high noticed and same with Blake was the kick Gary had done, had no signs of proper technique, the ball shouldn’t have gone that far. Meaning he had done it all with raw power.
‘Gary…I’m thankful that you’re on our team, but the improvement you have had, what happened to you?’ Blake thought.
The game went on and Blake surprisingly managed to snatch the ball off of one of their players, but just as Mr Root feared, after that the team had him surrounded. They knew there was no need to focus on the other players, and they were blocking his path from passing to Gil. Gary, seeing this had suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
‘You can do it, right? Then go show them what you got!’ Blake chucked the ball right though the gap towards Gary, and after catching the ball like a rocket, he was off.
Gary just ran straight. He knew better than to try and use any fancy footwork that he wasn’t used to, to evade the opposition. One of the Eton High players went for the tackle, but the ball carrier just continued running even when his legs were touched. Gary was like a train on tracks, not stopping in the least. Once he got past the first two it was smooth sailing until he reached the try line to score a point.
“I did it! I scored a point!” Gary yelled out in triumph. He then looked over the stands and enjoyed the feeling of being cheered on, especially since the one person he was looking out for gave him a standing ovation.
“Did you see that?” Leng asked his brother. “Since when did Westbridge have someone like him? Was he holding back on us the entire time?”
“Of course I saw that.” Sren answered in frustration. It was one thing to lose a point to the star player, but this was something completely unexpected and he didn’t like that. “No idea what’s gotten into that guy. According to our intel, he was supposed to be a benchwarmer, just like the rest of them. Now it seems like he’s their star player. Let’s just put more people on him!”
The game continued, but that wasn’t the only point Gary ended up scoring. With his sheer power he was able to force his way through nearly each time. At some point some of the players on Blake were also put on him. Using that opportunity, he would pass the ball, allowing the real star player to score.
When the referee called for a break, the score was 7 - 4 for the home team. They had managed to nearly double the other’s points, but there was still a problem. Despite his boost, he was unable to catch up to either of the twins. What’s more, his Energy had decreased sharply, which would make it risky to use Charging Heart again.
During the break, Tom approached Gary. “’m guessing your sudden boost in performance is due to the moon. Do you feel any different? Any sudden… urges?” Tom asked carefully.
Gary smiled back as he went back into position. “Just a healthy desire to win this match!”
Both teams went into position. Gary noticed the twins had an evil smile on their faces. In those few minutes, they had devised a strategy for how to deal with the ‘annoying green head’.
After the kick, Gary was in possession of the ball, yet five people had him surrounded. It was the required number of people to stop him without making it too easy for Blake to score. Already used to this, Gary had no choice but to pass the ball to the closest person, Tom.
They had done this a few times already and his best friend would usually just pass it onto the next person, but as soon as the ball left Gary’s finger tips, two redheaded students could be seen running through.
Before he had any chance to react, they both crushed Tom banging into him from either side, he fell to the ground in seconds, but that wasn’t the end of it. Turning around, both of them with their studded metal boots stepped on Tom’s hand. It had gone right through his palm causing him to bleed.
“Why the f*ck is it always me?!” Tom screamed in pain.
In almost an instant, Gary leapt from where he was, landing right on top of Sren, pinning him to the ground.
“I’ll kill you!”