Chapter 390 - Mano a Mano!
Hokul already untied his hair from the metal poles and currently, he was walking towards the ball that had bounced a couple of meters away from the goalpost.
After he reached it, he passed it to the plant Elementalist in their team, and straightaway sprinted to the corner dome while dragging his hair behind.
The viewers could see that his hair had been damaged since there were some red bald spots on his scalp.
'Why is he trying to get healed? I doubt he got hurt in the process.'
Those thoughts didn't remain in Felix's mind for even a second before he figured out the reason after connecting the dots with what Drago had mentioned.
'This is getting interesting.'
He realized that Bamur's unique hair was actually from a mutation and not an ability!!
That meant he wasn't wasting an ounce of energy to make it longer or shorter since it was part of his body just like Felix's tail!
In other words, he could just get healed back to peak shape after every successful block!
Since the ball would be always in their possession after his block, he would be given the time he needed to get healed!
As for the Sakura-like Tree? Felix believed that if it was doing nothing but just emerge, its energy consumption wouldn't be that high.
If it was capable of emitting mental affecting particles, healing mist, or something like that, it would definitely sap the user dry after merely three uses.
"Hahaha, the cat got your tongue?" Drago laughed out loud after figuring out from Felix's expression that he had found out about Bamur's hair mutation.
"If I were you I wouldn't be laughing." Felix gave him a sympathetic gaze and said, "You just lost the game in the 1st half."
"Huh?" Drago was left baffled by what Felix said.
But seeing his retreating back as he walked to the other side of the field, he scoffed to himself, 'If he is thinking of combating us upclose, then he must be the stupidest person I have ever seen.'
Drago understood that it was impossible for Felix to fight them all alone while at the same time dribble the ball forward. It was the same as fighting while carrying a baby.
With such a burden pulling him down, he was bound to lose the ball eventually and the moment that happened they could easily kick it away from him.
By then, Felix was bound to stop fighting due to the rules lest he ends up getting 5-minute expulsion.
'Captain, are we going to use the Volcanic Synergy again?' Hokul sent a message while clasping the ball with his talons.
'No.' Drago shook his head as he gazed at Sylvia, 'This time, they will most likely send that girl to either catch the ball mid-air or intercept you and make it impossible for you to drop it. You guys know that a single small alteration to the drop and I will not end up crossing paths with the ball.'
His teammates nodded their heads in agreement.
They knew that the synergy might look simple but in reality, it took them a massive amount of effort to practice it since they needed to calculate everything exactly for Drago to end up with the ball.
They were planning before on leaving it as an Ace synergy, using it only during the last critical moments.
But seeing that they were down by 4 points and one teammate before even 10 minutes had gone by in the game, made Drago use it now to get some momentum building for his team.
That goal was crucial to raise morale and Bamur's block had gotten them back their utmost confidence to win the game.
'Let's play it slowly to drag the game and waste that f*cker's energy.' Drago scoffed, 'He is nothing without his semi-morphing ability. So, make him use it to run for the ball.'
'Understood.'
After he received a confirmation, Drago sent a message to Bamul, checking on his situation. Soon, he was told that he would join them in 30 seconds.
When they heard so, The Salvadorians quickly returned to their original formation of 1-3-3-3 and continued wasting time by passing the ball between them.
They had one minute to move the ball forward and they took advantage of it fully.
'Mirak pass the ball to the right-wing, we will penetrate from that direction.' Drago said immediately after seeing that Bamul had emerged from the transparent dome.
The plant Elementalist did as she was told and passed the ball to the right midfielder.
'I will try to steal the ball.' Johnson sent a message while puffing out fog from his mouth, covering himself and the right-wing.
It didn't take even a couple of seconds before a thick linear cloud of fog had ended up covering the right-wing from the half-line to William who was positioned behind Johnson.
The Salvadorian midfielder frowned his eyebrows at the sight and was forced to slow down his dribbling.
'Captain, should we switch to the left-wing?' He asked.
'Yes!' Drago agreed without hesitation. He knew that his teammate lacked the necessary means to protect himself and the ball inside the fog.
After all, one needed a vision ability or element that was countering the fog element.
If Felix wasn't marking him, Drago wouldn't hesitate to swap positions and enter the fog since he was confident in his Magma abilities to keep the fog away from him.
This was the reason Johnson was placed as a right midfielder instead of a striker like in the previous formation.
His fog was too good for defense against the majority of the players since not everyone could unlock vision abilities.
In normal cases, even those with vision abilities wouldn't spot Johnson inside his fog due to his *Fog Camolauge*.
Sadly, he lost it when he replaced his bloodline and he etched *Fog Breath* in his 1% human bloodline.
Still, he did his job and protected the right-wing by forcing the Salvadorian midfielder to pass the ball behind to the defender Mirak.
"Lightning dash!"
Ronaldinho, who was the nearest to the ball, chased after it speedily while covered in lighting charges.
Upon seeing that he was actually going to reach it! Mirak hastily smacked both of her palms into the grass and four green roots had emerged a split second later in front of the ball!
Thud!
The ball bounced back on one root but it got clasped on by the other three roots!
"Lightning Spear!" Ronaldinho shouted while jumping in a tossing animation with his hand placed behind his back.
Simultaneous with his shout, lighting charges were projected from his palm and manifested a long lightning spear!
Without a single ounce of hesitation, he hurled it towards Mirak instead of the roots!
"Shit!" Mirak knew that she would be in grave danger if she didn't pull back her palms from the grass.
But if she did so, the roots would disappear since the ability she used was connected with the ground.
That's why they appeared instantly under the ball instead of using roots from fingers that were going to take time to reach the ball!
In the end, she pulled back only one arm and pointed her extended fingers at the lightning spear. Then, five thick roots surged from them and shaped up into a wooden shield forcefully by using her mental energy.
Whzzze!!! CLash!!
The lighting spear exploded after contact, scorching the roots black but didn't transmit any electricity to Mirak since wood was an insulator by nature.
Yet, neither her nor team seemed glad by her defense since Rolandinho had managed to recover the ball from the roots clutches by simply kicking it to the glass wall!
BAAAM!
The ball bounced back into the fully empty right-wing of the Salvadorian team!!
Where was Rolandinho? He was already speeding like a train towards it, completely ignoring Mirak who had a nasty expression.
"The Salvadorians are in big trouble!!" Tyson commentated excitedly, "Only one defender is left behind but can he buy enough time until the rest catch up?!"
Boom Boom!
"Come back here!!" Mirak's screams kept resounding from behind Rolandinho who never stopped zigzagging left and right, dodging her long-ass roots.
Alas, he kept pulling his distance further and further from her until her roots could never catch up to him!
Since Rolandinho was moving on the extreme right-wing, the defender who was left behind had to move to him.
Otherwise, Rolandinho would just kick the ball after reaching a comfortable distance.
The Salvadorians didn't want that to happen since they saw that his lightning balls were the perfect counter to Bamur's Blue hair!
"It's one on one! Can Rolandinho pass him and score the 3rd goal?!" Tyson asked what was on everyone's minds.
The answer to their question came sooner than they expected as Rolandinho didn't even bother piercing towards the goalpost in the first place as he simply carried on sprinting on the wing!
Everyone was confused by the sight at first since he couldn't score like that unless he moved straight to the penalty area from the corner.
But by then, he would have just made it extra difficult to shoot for no reason.
However, when the camera enlarged, the viewers had noticed that across the field, Leo was sprinting like his life was depending on it. Behind him was the left side defender!
"He is aiming to cross the ball to number 7, Leo Bridge!" Tyson shouted near the mic with clear anticipation in his tone.
Why? Because Leo was the 2nd striker in the team and had yet to even kick the ball due to Felix.
That made him somewhat invisible in the game since he wasn't participating in the defense as well!
If it wasn't for so, Leo wouldn't have managed to sneak behind the defender who was placing most of his attention on Mirak and Ronaldinho before!
'I am in my position!' Leo sent a message with a thrilled expression on his face.
He was indeed in the best position since he had reached the wide-open penalty arc without anyone being there to stop him!!
He was mano a mano with the Bamur!
*****
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