39 An intense struggle
"Remember Jude's words if you want to win." Akira said as he passed the ball back to the siblings before running to the opposite team's side of the field without looking back.
"You can leave it to us." Unlike the first half, team X was a completely different team, everyone rushed to the offense in a solid block. Everyone made the best use of each other's weapons as they went past more and more players.
Even the defenders rushed to the offense, team Z wasn't ready for such a chaotic yet organized attack, positions no longer meant anything yet everyone played together which completely destroyed Team Z's coordination.
That was the most aggressive and most risky type of football, yet that was what Blue Lock created, a team of eleven strikers who each run for the sake of their own goal.
"It's finally my time to shine." Akira flashed a bright smile as he trapped the ball with the inside of his foot and looked ahead. The only obstacle between him and the goal was a single defender who was running up to him.
"Pass it to me!" Miyata yelled out after freeing himself from the player marking him and running to an open space at Akira's right but the latter didn't even look at him and kept his shining eyes locked on the goal.
"Brace yourselves for the Akira special!!" He yelled out as he pushed the ball forward before shooting it at full power in a straight line.
"Ugh!" The defender groaned as the powerful shot connected with his face in an instant and pushed him down on his butt. Everyone stopped for a second to look at the man who fell down but only one person kept running without a single thought on his mind. "The Akira train doesn't stop after running over some ants!"
He yelled out before shooting the ball in a powerful straight line which seemed to be aimed at the keeper this time. Team Z's goalkeeper didn't even comprehend what happened as he fell down after getting hit by the ball on his shoulder.
"That's how a true striker does it!!" Akira yelled out. He then ran towards the siblings' arms to celebrate with them. Now that the team worked together they felt truly invincible.
"It seems like this team is really full of crazy people, first Jude and now Akira." Miyata whispered while shaking his head. The strikers in this team kept surprising him more and more. He already knew both of them from before even joining the Blue Lock project but this environment made their true nature and talent shine even brighter.
Jude who was supposed to be a goalkeeper used him to get past the whole team and score his own goal. And now Akira ignored him and shot at the defender's face and then straight at the keeper, usually such a shot would be extremely stupid and would only be made by a madman, yet his shot was so powerful that it hit the keeper's shoulder and still went in.
From the other side of the field, someone watched as everything unfolded. The slight twitch in his eyebrows signaled his annoyance after seeing the new score. 2-2 at the 58th minute.
"Let's try playing together or else we'll end up getting devoured by them." Yukimiya said as pushed his pride away and kicked the ball back to his teammates once the whistle was blown.
"You're quite the hypocrite." His teammate replied before passing the ball to someone else. Team Z was now almost complete, everyone had a silent agreement to work together but Yukimiya being the player who already scored two goals and kept playing alone until he lost the ball was shunned by the team.
Team Z kept advancing forward without Yukimiya getting any chance to touch the ball, even when he tried stealing the ball from his own teammates he always failed. They made sure to always keep the ball away from him, whenever he went near a player that player would then pass it back to someone on the opposite side of the field.
They kept advancing together up until one of them got a little too close to the penalty area, Yukimiya rushed towards him to try to steal the ball but Jude was faster than him this time.
"What..." The poor player said as he watched both Yukimiya and Jude rush towards him. Jude made use of his fast acceleration to take the player by surprise while all his focus was put on Yukimiya, he wasn't expecting the goalkeeper to go out of the penalty area just to steal the ball from him and that was his biggest mistake.
"I hope that counts as doing my job as the keeper." Jude smiled as he stole the ball from Team Z's player and passed it to Yanagi before rushing forward.
"I'll never get used to seeing a goalkeeper go out for the offense." Yanagi said as he passed the ball forward to Miyata who easily trapped it before running forward alongside the other midfielders.
The chaos started to form again, an unstoppable rush of all 11 strikers, once the ball arrived in the second half of the pitch the siblings got a hold of the ball and made use of their synchronized passes to get past any player who tried to stop them before once again passing the ball to their striker.
Akira trapped the ball with the outside of his foot before getting ready to arm his powerful shot yet again but right as he pushed the ball forward, Yukimiya appeared from behind him and stole the ball.
"If my teammates don't want to give it to me, then I'll have to take it by myself!" Yukimiya said as he covered the ball with his shoulder before dribbling past Akira but right as he was about to trap the ball again he was taken aback by Jude sliding in front of him.
That action forced him to push the ball forward a second time and jump to dodge Jude's sliding tackle. One of the siblings made use of this chance to take possession of the ball.
He was about to shoot it immediately but one of Team Z's defenders stood in his way to stop him which forced him to pass the ball back to Jude who was on his left.
Jude then trapped the ball, but as soon as he did Yukimiya rushed towards him so he had no choice but to use his shoulder to push Yukimiya away and keep the ball far from him.
"When it comes to physical power you're nowhere near my level." Yukimiya said as he pushed Jude off balance and threw his leg towards the ball.
"I know that much." Jude replied as he tried gaining back his balance before hitting the ball with the ball of his heel. The ball then went in between Yukimiya's feet before being trapped by Miyata who freed himself from any defender.
"I'll take that as payback for earlier." Miyata said as he shot the ball to the top left corner of the goal, the goalkeeper jumped towards it as quickly as he could but it was all in vain, the ball curved very slightly before finding itself in the net.
"You're the best Miyata!" The siblings jumped up on him in joy as the score was finally in Team X's favor. They all laughed and cheered together as the clock grew closer and closer to the end of the game.
Everyone in team Z was looking pretty disheartened after everything that happened, their mind began to fill itself with second thoughts as they realized that they might've made an error in deciding to ignore Yukimiya and that they might lose because of it.
They all went back to their position with the same thoughts in mind, they all silently agreed to play together and also include Yukimiya in all their plays starting from now, his talent was too good to be wasted.
Everyone shared the same thoughts about Yukimiya who nearly turned the game around, but the concerned player didn't take a single look at all his teammates, he ignored the whole world around him as he gritted his teeth while staring at Jude who was running back to his cages.
Jude suddenly turned around after feeling a slight anxious feeling creeping from behind but unexpectedly as soon as he turned around he was met with an enigmatic system notification.
[Eyes of the Lord detects very extreme and intense fluctuations in a player's emotions and ego.]
"What..?"
