Devil Ash Disarray (Devil Ash Saga Book 3) (19 page)

His group laughed and exchanged arm-jabs and high fives.

“Oh, gee,” Bora said, looking embarrassed. “You flatter me, Sars. I just like playing the game, and I always give it my all. I’d love to give you all some pointers if you’re interested.”

“
Knock if off, Bora
,” the big bearded man, Vadnais, whispered to his teammate.

“
We’re supposed to be trash-talking them
,” Fry, the smaller man, added.

“Oh, right,” Bora said, trying to put on a straight and intimidating face. “I hope for a good game, and that none of our friends get hurt today. Obviously, I’d like it if my team wins, but win or lose I’m buying everyone a round of drinks after the game.”

“Come on guys,” said Sars, rubbing his forehead in disappointment at Bora’s trash-talking skills. “We’ve got to go change. See you all on the field.” Sars and the guys wandered away. Dunger gave Ash one last evil eyed grunt before he was gone.

“See you Bora!” said Ash, waving him goodbye.

“
Damn that Bora
!” Aura said when the team was out of earshot. “
I
was thinking about buying everyone drinks after the game!”

“Let it go, man,” Ash said, clapping his friend on the shoulder.

“Listen up guys,” Aura said. “I want to play defender out there, so I can beat the crap out of Bora.”

“I want to play defender as well,” Shiva said. “It’s been too long since I last roughed up those jerks.”

“Oh!” Aralia said excitedly. “Me and Ash can be the pushers! How about it, Ash? Let’s push together!”

“That’s fine,” Ash said with some hesitation. “But what about…”

Everyone turned to look at Uverstarr, who didn’t seem to be paying much attention. The kid looked up at everyone with a blank stare.

“I’ll be the goal saver,” he said.

“You know, it’s not a very easy position…” Aura said, reluctant.

“You think you can stop that giant ball if it were rolling at you?” Shiva asked.

Uverstarr blinked. “
Yeah
.
I can
.”

“Have you ever even played this game before?” she asked.

“Why does that matter?” Uverstarr shot back. “All I have to do is stop the ball from getting in our goal. It’s not
that
hard to get.”

Sensing the building tension, Ash interjected. “Let’s go watch the first games and see what its like. If anyone decides they want to change positions, I’m okay with swapping.”

The team followed as Ash led the way towards the crowd stands. The first game had just ended when the group managed to find some unoccupied seats in the stands. Right away the thing that Ash noticed first was all the blood leftover on the field.

That’s an awful lot of blood for just one game
, Ash thought to himself. He felt a knot forming in the bottom of his stomach. Back on Earth he was never very good at sports. He preferred video games.

The next teams to play took the field. It was a mix of men and women, and it looked like the favored strategy was to use men as pushers and women for defenders. Both goal savers were also the biggest, strongest looking men on the team. This made Ash even more nervous for the childish Uverstarr.

After a coin toss, the team that started with the enormous stone ball began pushing while the opposing team stayed back. It took them a few seconds, but once the pushers got the ball rolling it seemed like it could not be stopped. They passed over the centerline and the other team sprang into action moving into formation to stop them. The two pairs of pushers battled, both sides trying to move the massive boulder their way.

The defenders were all action. Direct punches and flames were forbidden, but kicking, shoving, pushing, and tripping were all important components of the game. The defenders on the offensive side worked to keep their pushers safe by blocking the other team’s defenders, who moved in to try to tackle the enemy pushers. It looked like a brutal game, reminding Ash of rugby with a boulder.

They tried to pay attention to the various strategies they saw, hoping to learn some valuable tips for playing better. It looked like the pushers were the quickest to wear out, since most of their efforts involved pushing the giant boulder. The defenders needed to be both quick and tough, since they’d be doing the most moving around. Goal saver was a tough job as well, since they were the last line of defense against the massive rolling stone. They watched two games and in all that time they rarely saw the goal savers successfully stop the giant ball. Even though that was the only position allowed to use flames, it didn’t seem to make much of a difference.

“You
sure
you don’t want to play a different position?” Ash asked Uverstarr once more, hoping he’d reconsider.

“Nope,” said Uverstarr without even thinking about it. “I’m cool with goal saver.”

Ash looked to Shiva, who didn’t seem concerned at all. Aura wouldn’t take his eyes off Bora, who was seated lower in the stands with his team. Aralia returned Ash’s concern with a confident gaze.

“Don’t worry about him,” she told Ash. “He’s tougher than he looks. Remember?”

The last game concluded with only
four
injuries, making it the safest game they’d seen yet. As the final whistle blew and both teams walked or limped off the field, his friends started to stand up around him. Ash rose to join them as they left the stands, feeling nervous but excited. They cut through the crowd making their way onto the field, following Sars’s team. Ash wasn’t sure who’d win the game, but he felt confident that their uniforms at least looked better. Sars and his team wore matching shorts and shirts, but they were otherwise plain looking.

There was a coin toss to decide who’d start out with the ball. Shiva called it for the team and won. Ash and Aralia stepped up to the big stone ball to move it across the field for the starting play. It was no easy task. The two had to put their shoulders into it and push hard to get it moving. Once they gained a little momentum Ash was pleased to see the big boulder did move somewhat easily. Stopping it exactly where they wanted was a pain, and required both Shiva and Aura to step in the way to block it.

Finally, with the pushball and all players in place, the ref blew his whistle and the game began. Vadnais and Dunger, the team pushers, waited patiently for their chance to block the ball on the opposite side of the field. Ash looked to Aralia.

“You ready?” he asked her.

“Let’s do this!” she screamed.

The two pressed their hands against the cold stone ball and pushed with all their might. They were at a jogging pace when they crossed the centerline, Shiva and Aura following on either side of the ball. Once in enemy territory, the opposing team struck back. Dunger and Vadnais, the two big buff men, moved to block the ball’s path. Ash and Aralia could not see them or move to avoid them, and the ball came to a forceful stop as it collided with the two men, whose muscles bulged as they forced the ball back.

Now it was a battle to see which pushers would lose their endurance first. The defenders went to work immediately. Aura saw his chance to finally take on Bora while Shiva focused on blocking Fry. They were a slippery pair attacking from opposite sides. Bora moved like a pro, spinning and pivoting to avoid Aura as the death toucher charged at him.

Bora made it past Aura with ease and grabbed for the nearest target, which was Aralia still hard at work pushing the ball. Finding herself unexpectedly pulled off-center, Aralia fell to the side. Ash became distracted and lost the push-of-war against the other team. He narrowly managed to jump back and to the side in time to avoid being rolled over by the boulder.

“
What was that
?” Shiva barked. “
Pathetic
!
Get it together
!” she shouted at her teammates. Her screaming did not help Aura’s mood, as he grew more frustrated chasing after Bora, the more experienced player. Aralia and Ash were back on their feet and chasing after the ball, trying to get in front of it carefully without getting run over.

They managed to slow it down enough to get in front and start the pushing battle all over again. Ash’s team was in rough shape however as the ball stood only feet away from their goal zone. Uverstarr stood, hands in his pockets, watching the others scurry to obstruct the other team.

Ash and Aralia barely managed to hold the ball back long enough for the ref’s whistle to blow. Luckily, time had run out on the play. The game was reset as Sars’s team rolled the ball back to their side of the field. Shiva started waving her hands frantically, signaling for a team huddle.

“Okay, listen up,” she said once everyone was crowded around her. “I feel like I’m the only one out there actually doing what I’m supposed to.”

“Yeah,” Aura cut in, “because you’re covering their worst player! That Bora really is good! I know I could take him in a fight, but he’s a much better push ball player than me. For one thing, he actually
knows
how to play this position. He’s all over the place! I can’t keep up with him!”

“Then
cheat
,” Shiva replied.

“What?” Ash asked. “How?
Why
?”

“It’s not
technically
cheating since there’s nothing in the rules about it,” said Shiva. Everyone cocked their heads at her in confusion. “I’m talking about
soul power
. Enhance your legs to move faster than Bora.” She turned to Ash and Aralia. “Ash, you can enhance your arms with soul power and push that ball with no problem.”

“Oh yeah,” Ash said. “I’d thought about it, actually. I decided against it since it
seems
like cheating.”

“Well it’s not cheating,” said Shiva. “The rules say nothing about the use of soul power. So I say we use it to cream these morons.”

“Umm,” Aralia said. “What is soul power?”

The ref’s whistle blew. On the other side of the field Sars’s team was ready to go. Everyone scattered before an answer to Aralia’s question could be given. The girl stood next to Ash on the field as everyone reformed to play defense. With another blow from the ref’s whistle, Dunger and Vadnais started rolling the boulder down the center of the field.

“I’ll show you…” Ash turned to Aralia. She looked at him. “… the power of
my soul
.” He locked eyes with the giant stone ball rolling right at them. The girl saw a steamy, glowing vapor rising off the boy’s arms. She continued to stare until Ash had to warn her, “Get ready!”

The girl focused on the ball. It was only ten feet away. She braced herself, gritting her teeth and flexing her muscles. She was expecting a major collision, but Ash stuck out his right hand a little further than her arms could reach. The boulder slammed into Ash’s hand and stopped dead. Both Dunger and Vadnais ended up slamming themselves against the hard stone from the forceful stop. The crowd erupted into cheers and screams as Aralia turned once again to face the boy with admiration.

“Let’s go,” Ash said. He placed both hands on the boulder and moved it like a stack of papers. Aralia didn’t even have to do any of the pushing, though she still did anyway to not look useless. The boulder rolled up and over the opposing men and Ash and Aralia stepped over their injured bodies as they pushed the ball down the brown grassy field.

Taking a cue from Shiva, Aura focused his soul power on his legs. For once he was thankful for all that morning training he’d had to do. It was a cinch to focus the power exactly where he wanted, and now the boy was fast enough to take on Bora. With the added speed boost he could stay between his pushing teammates and the opposing defender.

Bora came in fast with more of his fancy footwork, but Aura knew his destination. He got between Aralia and Bora. As soon as Bora charged, Aura charged even faster. He tackled Bora to the ground and climbed to his feet quickly. Shiva didn’t even need to use her soul power to take on Fry. She had no difficulties in keeping the little man away from Ash.

With no one left but Sars to stop them, the goal saver moved to defend his zone. The stone was only thirty feet away and moving fast. Sars blasted some flames forward, trying to arc them around the big ball to hit the pushers. This was one of the best common defense strategies for the goal savers in push ball. He lobbed fireball after fireball, not having to worry about hitting his own teammates. They were nowhere near the ball anymore. No matter how many flames Sars threw the ball did not slow down.

He braced himself holding his arms ready to try and stop the ball. It was no use. The giant rolling stone didn’t even stop a little as it rolled right over Sars and into the goal zone. The ref’s whistle blew several times in recognition of Ash’s team scoring a point.

It looked like using soul power was the way to go. The game just got easier from there as Dunger, Vadnais, and Sars were weakened from being rolled over. Ash’s team had finally found their groove, as Aura delighted in moving faster than Bora could ever anticipate. Shiva actually got bored defending against Fry. Uverstarr lay in the goal zone on his back, staring up at the clouds and dozing.

Sars’s team started with the ball next, but it did not help. The same events unfolded and Ash’s team not only blocked them, but managed to push the ball back into the other team’s goal. It had become a one-sided game all of a sudden as Ash’s team racked up three more points. The only disruption to their rhythm came after Aura misinterpreted one of Bora’s movements. The guys collided, but Bora’s momentum was enough to send them stumbling towards the pushers.