99 Skill Combo

"Alright lads, put your heads up. I think we did pretty well today"

The ride back to Middlesbrough was very long for the Teesside players. Majority of them were holding in a myriad of emotions. They were angry, disappointed that they somehow managed to throw away a lead in the last minutes of a match.

For some minutes, some, if not all of them, had started to believe that they were going to go through to the quarter finals of the match but they threw everything into the mud with their own match.

There were two players whose faces didn't hold any noticeable emotion on the ride back, Ayanfe and Omari. The latter stuffed his ears with air pods and had his eyes closed. At this point, his mind was successfully distracted from the loss against London Blue, he was thinking about the effects of the skill combo that the system gave to him earlier. He would have to investigate it when he got home.

Ayanfe on the other hand, well, even though his face didn't show it he was definitely the angriest person inside the bus at that moment. He was angry at himself for conceding the two goals. If only he kept a clean sheet then his team would be well on their way to the quarter finals.

If Omari or any other Teesside player knew what Ayanfe was thinking then they would've given him a slap on the face. Ayanfe didn't do anything wrong. He had even managed to scoop the man of the match award even though he conceded two late goals.

"As I was saying you lads did pretty well today, but you didn't deserve to win the match. They just… they wanted it more" Michael sat beside the driver at the front seat while addressing the players. "This match made me realize how many things we have to correct during training. You were too open in midfield, they had too much possession and we were conceding too many shots"

Some of the players scoffed in response to what Michael was saying but he didn't hear them… lucky them.

"I mean, what the hell? Forty five shots in a match, and Ayanfe ended up having to make twenty saves tonight, poor lad" Michael said. "Seeing you lot play with my tactics made me think I didn't know anything about coaching at all. Starting tomorrow we're going to add an extra hour to our training"

Most of the 'downcast' players shouted in protest. Michael however, was having none of it. He had already made up his mind. "The extra hour will be used for personal conditioning. You lads will work with the other coaches to improve yourselves personally"

Some of the groans quieted down when Michael explained what the extra hour would be used for.

Omari meanwhile had no idea what was happening, he only saw a few players groaning and raising their hands in protest. After staring blankly for a few seconds, his lips curled into a smile. There's only one thing that can cause everyone to protest uniformly… extra training!

***

A few hours later, Omari lay in his bed. When he got home, his parents said a few words to console him, and after bragging about his goal, Omari went to his room.

"System?"

|Ding!|

"Please can you elaborate what you mean by skill combo?" Omari asked.

Normally, he had a basic understanding of the term skill combo. He had been playing MMORPG games when he was little. The understanding he had however, was using two skills in quick succession. For example, if he were to use [step over] then use [pinpoint finishing] once he beat his marker, couldn't that be regarded as a skill comb?

|Ding! Skill Combo: Allows host to use two compatible skills without activating the second one|

Omari stared at the very vague explanation given by the system and shook his head. He still didn't understand what the system was saying.

"System, could you elaborate further?"

|When Host is dribbling the ball ad is about to take on a player, he can use two compatible skills. For example: Host wants to get past a defender, [step over] and [nutmeg] are compatible skills. Host can combine them to get past the player and decide what he wants to do with them|

Omari was shocked. Even though the system has been giving him some unbelievable buffs, this particular one was too… overpowered?!

This meant that he didn't need to activate new skills, he could just transition from something like [step over] into [pinpoint finishing]. He would be absolutely lethal!

After thinking for a bit about how he was going to fully utilize the skill combo, Omari looked at some memes on his phone. He saw a few transfer rumors involving himself, Ayanfe and David but he ignored them, he hadn't heard anything from his agent so he couldn't be bothered about what he was seeing on social media.

After he had seen memes to his satisfaction, Omari turned off his phone and placed it on a table situated beside his bed. He was about to go to sleep when his phone rang. He looked at the caller ID and furrowed his brows.

"Alex?" He muttered. "What the fuck does the wanker want to tell me at this time in the night?"

He picked up the phone and spoke almost immediately. "Whatever it is you want to tell me, can't it wait till tomorrow?"

When Omari heard the words that came out of the phone however, he was shocked to the core.

"Madrid White have asked to speak with you. If things go well, they could be submitting a forty million euro bid for you in the winter transfer window"