25 Players

"This is what a regular field of Mage Ball looks like," Cindy said as she admired her work. Using her marvelous coaching she commanded 4 trees to play the role of goal posts. She made 2 of them parallel to each other with at least 5 feet of distance between them. She then placed it at one end of the open space, then placed the other two parallel to each other on the opposite ends. "Well just about how one would look like."

She stood in the center of the field, Allen next to her, and spun around laughing. Allen looked at her with a raised brow and worry written on his face. "You'll be red team," she said as she ran over to one side of the field, but she stopped halfway before she turned back to Allen. "I forgot something. You have fire abilities right? Can you burn a little line on the ground from," she pointed at his feet, then moved it through the air, drawing an imaginary line across the middle of the field.

Allen lifted his feet and followed the imaginary line that Cindy made, he scratched his head, "How am I supposed to do that?"

"You don't know." Cindy's face dropped as she started thinking of what to do.

"How did you make the trees float? Was it a magic spell?"

"Nope, it was my magical ability, the ability that I was born with."

"Oh! I have one too, it's what makes me the dragonborn."

"Yeah, yeah I know, you told me while you were on the run. Are you alright by the way? Like does the fire fuck your insides up? Do you regularly breathe fire out of your nose like the dragon in Broomhilda."

"What is Broomhilda? I'm fine, though sometimes my stomach burns."

"You need to see a doctor, for your brain and stomach. Anyway it's a fairy's tale about a hero who goes head first up a burning mountain and saves a princess from a dragon." Cindy threw her hands up as she rushed over to Allen, "None of that matters right now anyway. We aren't hunting dragons right now, we are playing Mage Ball! Which is all about mana control, show me what you can do with your dragonborn powers."

Allen nodded, as he ignited his hands, his eyes tinting crimson and his pupils became snake like. The flames were fierce as though it was expecting to burn something to ashes. "Doing this doesn't tire me out much like applying mana does."

"Apply mana to your flames," Cindy demanded as she watched Allen's flames become more gentle and brighter. "That's too much mana. To achieve what you want to get, a gentler flame, you don't need this much mana. You can turn it off now, I don't need you tiring out again."

Allen panted as he extinguished his flames, "Are we going to play now?"

"Yup, go to the goal post, the two trees over there," Cindy pointed to the two parallel trees she placed at the opposite side of her own goal post. Allen walked over there and stood in front of it, Cindy did the same walking over to her own goal post and standing in front of it. "So how exactly do we play Mage Ball."

"Basically, you win by getting enough points. You gain enough points by scoring. You score by throwing the ball into the goal post or by catching a ball that is thrown. Of course it gets more complex than that, but we are playing the manaless version."

"Manaless?"

"We are pretending as though we don't know how to apply mana. You'll go first, so catch," Cindy threw her mage ball over to Allen, it glowed a slight white light that flew directly over to Allen, who while awaiting the ball, had cupped his hands to try and catch the ball. The ball landed in Allen's hands with deadly accuracy, and enough force to feel quite the impact in his palms. The moment the ball hit Allen's palms the glow on it was gone. Allen looked at it, observed every aspect of it, it felt like rubber, but the material was different in nature. Something about it seemed to react with the fire in his belly.

As though any possibility was plausible if he threw the ball.

"Don't go over that imaginary line I showed you," she giggled, "Try throwing the ball between my trees."

Allen nodded, he gripped the ball in his right hand, and swung his body back and twisted it towards his left side. He lifted his feet and swept it against the stone floor, then he extended his left arm forward. He aimed his throw using his left hand, he tilted his head, then threw.

ROUND 1 START

Cindy whistled, "Terrible throw, but-" The ball flew through the air it succumbed to gravity, but it was a good height in the air, up to about Cindy's chest, the trajectory was directly into the goal. The speed was amazing, it was like a prodigy rookie pitcher on his sixth game. It was shaky, but at a comfortable speed. Cindy tracked the ball from the moment it left Allen's hand. no- She tracked it from the moment he caught the ball. She watched him like an eagle finding a rat in an open field.

Each slight movement from Allen was recorded, replayed, and reviewed by Cindy. She giggled as she applied mana to her knees for a split second as she bent it and sprung herself forward. She took the mana away from her knees and redirected it to the soles of her feet and the tips of her toes. As she regularly pushed off of her soles and her toes, she took 3 steps to the right to be exactly in front of the ball. She caught it.

"That's one point for me!"

"Alright, how many points do we need to win?"

"5 for round 1. Get ready," Cindy gripped the ball in her hand as she assumed a pitcher's form, in one smooth motion she lifted her leg, stomped her foot down on the ground, twisted her body, swung her arm back, and threw the ball as hard as she could. The ball flew slower than Allen's throw, but it made its way over to Allen's side. He didn't notice the ball until it began slowing down as it approached Allen's goal. He hopped, as he fell back to the ground, his upper body already was in motion to run.

He hit the ground, running towards the ball which staggered in the air as it succumbed to gravity and fell onto Allen's chest. Noticing this, Cindy yelled out to him, "Don't let it fall onto the ground and completely stop bouncing. You won't gain a point if that happens. I'll score a point instead."

She chuckled as she watched him struggle to catch the ball. He juggled the ball between his chest and his hands, even going as far as crouching down to catch the ball. He held it high as he lifted himself back up, "I got it! That's a point for me correct?"

"Yes! The score is 1-1 now. Try to throw it back into my goal. Remember you can't use your magical ability. Wait we are doing manaless aren't we. I fucking can't take it. Allen, wanna use mana now. I'm not comfortable with manaless Mage Ball," Cindy said as she walked back and forth in front of her goal.

"Comfortable?"

"I don't like it at all, it's got a totally different mood. If you really want to play that, go up against some Ra players."

"Sure, we'll try using some mana." Allen copied Cindy's previous throw, assume a pitcher's form, and in one swift motion throw the ball while twisting his body accordingly. The ball flew faster than last time, yet all the same Cindy watched his every movement and predicted the trajectory. It was heading right for her goal. She applied mana to her knees, bent them then leapt, redirected her mana to apply the mana to the soles of her feet, then to the tips of her toes. She took 2 steps to the left as she extended her hand toward the ball, she was a step away from the ball, but applied mana to her hand.

As her hand glowed, she then leaked her mana out of her own hand. Her mana extended past her body towards the ball that leeched onto her mana like a moth to a light. Despite the ball being in motion, it stopped for a split second as Cindy's mana overwhelmed it.

"Let me tell you about mana Mage Ball. You can throw the ball back using the momentum of your opponent," The suspended ball glowed with white, as Cindy applied mana to the ball. She looked over at Allen who stood there waiting for her to catch the ball. She then noticed a trajectory that she could take to get the ball into the goal. She smiled as she launched the ball toward the ground.

The ball bounced off the ground, a small wave of white washed over the field when the ball hit. Afterwards it was redirected between Allen's legs and right through the goal.

Cindy laughed, "It's been so long since I did that. I'm out of practice." Allen stood there star struck, he watched the ball bounce off the ground and between his legs, but he could not react to it.

"The score is 3-1. Did I mention that you get 2 points for getting the ball through the goal."