Michael was leaning against one of the oak trees far enough away from their goal, to where he couldn't see it, but he still knew exactly where to head if need be.
Suddenly, he heard a loud crash, and then spotted a flock of birds flying out of the arena.
"I have a bad feeling."
He muttered under his breath.
Then he started to hear leaves rustling violently twenty or so meters in front of him.
He pushed himself off of the base of the tree, and silently made his way toward the bushes, when a silver blur shot through them.
Two of Skytide's players were running side by side toward their goal, and unfortunately had possession of the Aetherball.
The girl who was not holding the ball had short blonde hair, and was much leaner then the other.
But that was the problem. The girl who held the ball was all too familiar.
"Herra..."
He said, with a slight taste of bitterness resting on his tongue.
"Everfrost."
Her normally silent voice rose, and she ran directly toward him with the ball, as her teammate went to circle around him.
Herra ran with a dangerous sense of strength, and the both of them knew what would happen if he were to defend head on.
"Help!"
Michael shouted, as he began to quickly shuffle backward, hoping and praying that one of his teammates had heard his frantic call for backup.
'Damnit, it's pointless.'
He thought feeling the pounding in his chest speed up.
He planted his feet into the dirt and lowered his shoulder, preparing to face her head on.
She didn't even bother passing to the girl who had ran behind her, and charged him directly with the ball tucked underneath her shoulder.
With a crash, she lowered her shoulder into him, and it felt as if two powerful forces of energy had clashed into one another.
It took all of Michael's energy to keep himself standing upright, yet in the end it did not matter, and the girl practically had ran him over.
He felt his back hit the ground, and spotted dirt flying into the air around him.
His ears were ringing, and his shoulder had gone completely numb. The thought of what would have happened if her wasn't wearing shoulder padding, crept into his mind for a short second.
Then he spotted Herra.
She had stumbled back and was shaking her head violently, causing her oversized helmet to rattle around her head.
Michael would have laughed if his situation wasn't so dire.
He pressed his fists against the ground and tried to push himself up, until he realized that in that short amount of time, Herra had already passed the ball forward, and to where her blonde teammate must have been waiting.
'That damned Panda better be ready.'
He thought, gritting his teeth. It was clear that the gameplan was not going to work against such a complete team.
"You're still weak, youngest son of Everfrost..."
She said in a low grumble, still trying to shake her dizziness away.
"Oh shut it."
Michael retorted, finally standing up.
The roars of the crowd finally grew eerily silent, and then what followed truly filled him with a dangerous sense of dread.
"GOAL!"
A loud voice echoed across the arena.
"Skytide - 1, Phoenix - 0!"
The Overseer followed up with, in his annoying voice.
A few seconds passed, as a cocky grin twisted up on the corners of the Zephyrian princess's small lips.
"Damnit!"
Michael screamed, kicking the the dirt.
Chase, The Nameless.
Chase was completely dazed, as he looked down at his hands that were scraped to the brim, and dripping blood from the cracks in his gloves.
He had somewhat been able to stop his impact with the tree, but not enough to make that much of a difference though.
It was hard to stand, too hard in fact.
He was wobbling over to where Jack, and Equan were waiting patiently.
When the two of them spotted Chase, the dark boy's expression grew grim.
"Damn..."
Jack said, finally starting to show a hint of weakness in his normally egotistical voice.
A loud voice then boomed throughout the coliseum.
"GOAL!"
A sigh escaped Chase's lips, he couldn't help but feel that it was his fault, even though it wasn't the offense's job to protect the goal.
All other sounds were blocked out by the pain that was radiating through the entire right side of his upper body.
"Get ready."
He heard Equan say, as Jack had already began to jog in the direction of his side of the arena.
"Our Vanguard should bring the ball up, which means that Leo will be heavily defended."
Chase nodded.
"So the defense will transition to whichever one of us who gets the ball?"
"Right..."
Chase tried his best to limp into the direction of his side of the arena.
At times like this he really wished he could summon Sparky, so that his flames could make quick work of healing his injuries, but of course he had not even found said way of summoning the canine yet.
Nearly stumbling over a log that blocked his path, he finally began to hear the shouts of both teams behind him.
He repeatedly yelled at himself to get ready, and smacked his helmet ten or so times, in hope that he could force himself to ignore the pain.
Chase then flinched, as the leather ball was only inches from his face.
He needed to grab it, and quick...