"You look like hell..."
Michael of House Everfrost called out with an exhausted sigh.
He certainly wasn't one to talk either. He had taken his helmet off, revealing his black hair drenched in sweat. The orange patterns on his jersey were so caked in mud, it looked like he'd been dragged through a swamp.
All Chase could do was let out a pained groan as he tried to push his ruined body up from the crater within the mound of dirt.
After several attempts, all he could manage was pushing his upper body up and into a sitting position.
Michael walked over, and held out a hand.
Chase looked up at his friend with an apologetic sigh, and let the boy help him up.
"It's my fault they scored that last goal."
He said nearly inaudible.
Michael shook his head, and continued to help him walk over to the home team's locker room.
"No, this team can't coordinate for crap. Plus, I should have been able to stop their captain on the first drive."
The two of them decided that silence was probably the only reasonable outcome giving the current circumstances.
Once they arrived they were greeted with multiple different things going on inside of the locker room.
On one side, a surprising scene was taking place. Equan had actually gotten quite mad, and was yelling at a couple of the defensive players.
On the other side of the room, it was both Jack and Leo who had gone completely silent, and were sitting back to back on the back row of benches.
Michael and Chase decided that it would be best if they made an attempt to calm their friend down, and made their way over to Equan.
Chase sat down on the bench next to where the loud outburst had grown into a screaming match.
While the child of Everfrost putting a hand on Equan's shoulder, and whispering something inaudible in his ear, which seemed to have calmed the boy down.
Coach Gerald was seated next to the planning board with his head down, and an unreadable expression on his face.
The lighting of the room had gotten a lot dimmer then Chase remembered, and the protective ruins welded into their jerseys had almost seemed to have gotten weaker.
Which made sense when you realized that they were powered by the home team's chants and cheers.
He made his best effort to lift his arm high enough to scratch the runic emblem underneath the padding on top of his sleeveless shoulder.
"Coach, tell me you got some sort of halftime arrangement..."
Leo said, his voice showing a sense of true weakness for the first time.
There wasn't any sort of response for what felt like multiple minutes, until he stood up and picked up the drawing utensil that sat on the ledge of the board.
He started to draw something that resembled a formation substitution, until he just shook his head and erased it.
Eventually, he spoke.
"Just stick to the original plan. Maybe improvise if you have to."
Then something happened that caused Chase to flinch and turn his head in the direction of Leo.
The child of House Lion had slammed his helmet into the bench, and was staring into the locker room wall with a hopeless expression.
That was pretty much all that had happened up to the point the bell rang once more, signaling the start of the second half.
No one said anything, no one had anything to say. Even if Chase did speak out, no one would have listened to him.
He was just some Stray who had been given a lucky spot on the starting squad, because some senile old man had decided to take a chance.
They took the field...
The three starting attackers of Team Phoenix were standing side by side once again.
"I'm guessing neither of you have any good ideas?"
Jack said, with a slight irritation in his voice.
"Play slow."
Both the redhead and Chase looked at Equan with questioning expressions.
The boy sighed, he was wearing quite a dark scowl for a boy his age.
"They are expecting us to play fast, can't you tell?"
The two older boys exchanged looks.
"Look at them, so high and mighty because they come from the Valkerian bloodline..."
Chase took a scarce glance at the captain of Skytide, who was patiently waiting for the second half to begin.
He tried his best to avoid eye contact, but it was pointless. As if she knew the exact moment in time when he would look her way.
He looked back down at the ground, demanding his body not to give out just yet.
Chase hated all nobles, that was true; however, in reality he did not bare any sort of dark grudge or revenge scheme against any of the high and mighty families.
But something told him that Equan must have had a dark history related to a rival Noble house, which made him wish that he had paid attention in his social society classes.
Then before he could ask the boy anything, the familiar booming voice returned.
The second half was about to begin.
Sure enough, the ball shot from the ground. This time much faster then the previous half.
Chase ran over to his side, and Jack did the same.
The Overseer spoke the customary lines, and then the ball shot toward Phoenix's side.
All he was able to spot was Equan launching nearly seven meters into the air, and snagging the ball with one of his hands.
It was a sight that he surely didn't expect to see this early in the second half.
Chas ran with all of his remaining energy into the direction of the other team's goal. His heart was racing, and he could have sworn that a Skytide attacker had tried to trip him from behind.
He stumbled, but somehow had kept his balance.
Suddenly, as if he knew it was going to happen. He turned just in time to see the ball spiraling in his direction, and a silver dawned girl right behind it.
Chase had to use both of his arms to secure the ball, and felt a terrible ache once the ball smacked into his chest.
But he kept going, even though he knew that Herra was right behind him.
Then as he swerved to the side of one of the many trees, he spotted a bright light in the vast distance of the forest.
Not even second guessing himself, he fired the ball as hard as he could into the direction of where the light had originated.
"Damnit!"
The girl's voice yelled out from a direction that he couldn't pinpoint.
He leaned against one of the large spruce trees, and let out an exasperated sigh.
Then only a minute or so later, he heard something that filled him with a newfound sense of hope.
At first he thought it was just some sort of hallucination, until he heard a loud crack of a tree only twenty or so meters away. Followed by an angered yell from the captain of Skytide.
"GOAL!"
"No way..."
A slight smirk made its way onto the boy's mud ridden face.