Gideon had been separated from his teammates and now stood next to a small creek within the arena.
He was still quite unfamiliar with the terrain, seeing as this was his first real Aetherball game.
But that wasn't to say that this wasn't all extremely fun.
He had always been quite sheltered by his parents growing up.
And it made sense, seeing as he was the last heir of The Voidborns...
You see, he used to have an older brother who had mastered the true affinity of their house, but had vanished years ago due to the expedition into the void.
That was the first and last time any of the great houses had tried to conquer an unknown part of the world.
He bit his tongue.
All the tension in the air was getting to him.
His hands were shaking, when he looked down at them.
He blinked as hard as he could, several times out of desperation to clear his mind.
With a quick glance up at the large magical projection above the arena, he let out a stressed sigh.
"Tied, with only three minutes left..."
Then he heard something that made his very heart nearly stop in its tracks.
Ahead of him, was the same girl who appeared as if she was a goddess.
Only this time instead of having a powerful force behind her... She was alone, and looked as if she was planning to wage war against the gods alone.
Her eyes glinted from behind her helmet, and she was pissed...
She held the ball tightly, with only her left hand.
She didn't even bother to charge Gideon either, and took her time slowly striding toward him.
Every second felt like minutes, and Gideon could feel energy seeping off of her very being.
His body tensed, and his breath grew ragged.
She was clearly buying time on the clock, hoping for this to be the final drive.
But she was most likely hoping that Gideon would rush her out of panic.
Little did she know, that unlike her... He had trust in his team.
He waited, praying to all of the gods that he could think of.
He had to force himself to not charge her head on, and patiently waited, and waited, and waited...
Then it happened.
A boy with slick black hair, and a cracked helmet shot out of the clearing with a deranged look on his tired face.
Michael had charged directly into The Valkerian Princess...
The girl let out a pained groan, as she plummeted toward the ground.
Gideon finally had his moment.
The ball had been rocketed from her hand, and was about to frantically barrel into the sky.
But before the ball could even think about scattering, Gideon grabbed it.
And fired it toward Equan who had just let a spark fly off into the sky like a flare, at that very moment.
Chase, The Nameless.
Chase woke up with a groan.
Everything hurt, and a lot more then he remembered.
His vision was blurry, but he could feel a strange scraping against his shoulder, that seemed all too familiar.
Then another groan escaped his lips, as a burning sensation ripped through the very skin on his right shoulder.
When his vision returned, he could see faint green flames simmering in and out of existence.
His jaw nearly dropped to the ground...
"No... Wait!"
He desperately reached out in front of him.
But the faint ghost of Sparky had already vanished, and he began to feel a euphoric essence enter back into his shoulder.
Tears began to flow from his eyes.
"Gods damnit!"
He screamed, punching the ground as hard as he could, which caused his body to angerly backlash in protest.
Jack Of House Ember.
It happened again, but this time Jack was ready.
Equan came flying out of the trees, with the ball tucked underneath his shoulder.
Jack had already began to sprint in the direction of Skytide's goal.
He glanced up at the clock, seeing that there was only forty or so seconds left, and based on the current state of the team: They were definitely not fit for an overtime battle.
It had to end, here and now...
"Pass!"
Jack screamed with all of his might from the other side of a dense group of trees, still in full sprint.
Equan must have heard him from the other side, he had to have heard him...
As they ran parallel toward the goal, he began to feel like maybe all hope was lost.
There was no ball or Equan in sight once he reached the clearing only thirty meters in front of the goal.
He looked around desperately, remembering the gnawing feeling of restoring his houses former glory.
A distant thought echoed through his mind, and maybe... just maybe it wasn't meant to be.
But then, just then.
A flaming ball shot through the forest behind him, and at the very farthest distance he could see.
Equan was drowning in a tide of Skytide players, but he had somehow gotten off a last second pass.
And everything that had happened throughout this match had led up to this very moment.
His heart skipped a beat, and he realized that if he had somehow dropped this pass then they would go to overtime, and probably lose this game.
"No! Stop it!"
He yelled, reaching up and just barely securing the pass with only one hand.
Then he did the only thing he could possibly do...
He sprinted with every last ember igniting within his heart.
It felt like a tide of flames was washing over his very soul, like a powerful tsunami that had come directly from the king of Neptune himself.
His feet felt heavy, like he was trying to run in a nightmare. His body was sweating profusely, and then he seen it.
No, not the wide open net with the clueless goalkeeper standing idly in front of it.
Herra was leaning against one of the isolated trees in front of him.
And boy oh boy was she pissed off.
She clenched her fists and charged him, and Jack knew with every essence of his being, that if he was hit head on by her, then that was it. That would be game.
He squinted his eyes and prepared for the worst, squeezing the ball to his chest as hard as he could.
But only moments before she was about to hit him, something of the utmost unexpected happened in front of him.
First he seen something he thought was a hallucination.
Mixes of green sparks, the scattering of blood, and a being drowned in mud: Flew out of the trees like a cannonball fired from a Primis powered canon.
'No way...'
Chase had thrown himself directly at Herra's side, bringing her down with him.
As the two dove straight into the ground at intense speeds, and skidded for what could have been fifty meters to his right- Jack's heart skipped a beat, and he had to forcefully push out any thoughts of failure at that very moment.
He leaped into the air, and reached back.
Feeling his fingers pinch against the leather stitching of the ball, he felt it begin to heat up.
Knowing that he couldn't use any of his Primis to affect the ball or players, he had to use unique methods to get the ball past the goalkeeper with widened eyes.
The boy in front of the goal, began to use some sort of wind power, and it felt like a powerful force of nature was pushing Jack back as if a tornado had been summoned right on top of him.
He threw the ball as hard as he could, using a strange side-armed angle.
A loud bell rang through the air, signaling the end of the game.
It didn't matter now, as the ball was still in the air.
Then it happened.
The goalkeeper through himself in the ball's direction, but Jack's crazy plan had worked.
The ball spun like it had become the tornado and dove straight out of the way of the goalkeeper, and directly into the glowing surface of the goal.
First there was silence.
Jack descended to the ground, and landed in the soft mud.
For a second he thought that he had failed, and had released the ball way too late.
But then it happened.
The crowd erupted with an explosion of screams.
Normally it was supposed to be a faint humming feeling in the ruins of one's armor when the crowd got loud.
But Jack could feel the power emitting from the ruins, like he had been charged by a powerful lightning strike made of pure energy.
For a second he was starstruck, as if the thought of possibly winning had never even crossed his mind.
Then he let out a scream, followed by a laugh of awe.
Fireworks were launching into the sky.
He looked up at the beautiful explosions, only to see a phoenix plastered into the sky above him.
It was the most euphoric feeling he had ever felt.
They had won.
"We won..."
He muttered mid laugh.