Chapter 421: Titan Drops: Blacklist VS Colossus(4)
Seth jogged back on his side of the court. He didn’t even celebrate, nor smile, nor fist pump, not even a glance toward the bench. He just walked back down the court, looking like a bored office worker who just stamped another piece of paper.
That was his Breakball style. He didn’t do any of that flashy shit, no behind-the-back dribbles, no blind passes, no showy dunks for the cameras. He just planted his foot, moved in a straight line, and shot the ball.
To Seth, any move that didn’t result in points was a waste of time.
He never did anything extra in his life. He was fast, clean, and efficient. He was the kind of player you don’t even notice until you look at the scoreboard and see he’s destroyed the other team.
And speaking of the scoreboard, it was about to tell a story.
The Blacklist team was bringing the ball up the court, but they were missing their heavy hitters. Jaz, Aiko, Miko, and Kai were all out. On the bench, four of the most dangerous girls on the team were just staring at the floor, nervously fidgeting with their towels.
The only ones left on the court were Nash, Rei, Mai, Alicia, and Chio. They didn’t have a single real dunker left, and they didn’t have a shooter who could hit every shot. It wasn’t that Alicia was trash, but while Miko was a goddess who never missed, Alicia was only hitting about 3 out of 5, and with the pressure of this game, the girls were basically playing under water.
Nash could feel it in the flow of the game; every time he threw a pass, it landed in the hands of someone who didn’t have the gear to finish the play.
So, it resulted in the second event that confirmed Blacklist’s bad situation: Nash went back to the only plan he had left, the same one from the start of the game: being the bread winner, aka, feed the girls.
One dribble, then a laser-fast pass to Mai. Mai zipped it right back to Alicia on the wing. Alicia tried to fake a drive to the hoop, but she hesitated for a split second too long and let out a rushed three-pointer.
The ball hit the front of the rim and fell back down to Hall who snatched the rebound with both hands, barely even having to jump. Alicia tried to fight him for the ball, but he just shoved her aside with his elbow like he was opening a curtain.
He threw a long outlet pass forward, right into the stride of Kael, who stopped dead behind the three-point line, bent his knees, and fired the shot.
[Colossus 38-44 Blacklist]
𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢
"There it is," Hall muttered as he trotted back to defense. That was the way things were supposed to work. Kids run around during the day, but at night, adults clean up the mess.
In the stands, the Blacklist fans were starting to freak out.
"Why the hell did they take Jaz out?!" one guy yelled.
"And Miko! She hadn’t missed a single shot!" another screamed.
"Have they lost their damn minds? What about my bet??"
Over on the bench, nobody was talking. Jaz was gripping her towel with both hands, trembling from the pressure.
"Come on..." Aiko whispered, her fingernails digging deep into her own palms. "Come on, girls."
Hina had her hands pressed against her mouth.
"They can do it," she murmured. "They’re gonna make it."
Miko pushed her glasses up.
"The rhythm is broken," she noted, her voice lower and more serious than usual. "But all we need is one good play. Nash is still there, we can’t lose with him "
Kai was crossing her fingers on her knees without even realizing it, and Nia, with an arms draped over Rumi and Hana’s shoulders, stared at Chio without blinking. They were all terrified, everything was going so fine, but none of them looked away.
These were their teammates out there, and they were praying for them to hold on. Next to them, Victoria hadn’t moved a single inch, and Dahlia, sitting next to her, was chewing her thumbnail while staring intensely at her tablet.
On the hardwood, Nash brought the ball up.
He gave it two quick low bounces right by his hip to get past the half-court line. Then, he looked to the left, watching Rei move in to set a screen.
The whole defense understood the move and followed Rei, just for Nash to zip a no-look pass to the right, reaching Mai, who had already slipped behind Hall. She just had to grab it while sprinting. Two steps, a jump, and she slammed the ball against the backboard.
It rolled softly around the rim and dropped straight in.
[Colossus 38-46 Blacklist]
Seth didn’t give the defense a second to get their shit together. He took the inbound pass, bounced the ball once, planted his feet a few steps from the hoop, and jumped straight up for a shot. Rei had her arms up to block him, and Nash dove in from the side, but they were just a fraction of a second too late.
[Colossus 40-46 Blacklist]
"Fuck! I almost had him!" Rei hissed.
"Next time," Nash replied. "The guy is faster than we thought."
Rei grit her teeth. She hadn’t planned on losing again against Seth, not after all that despair that followed, then their hope and the training. It wasn’t an option. It was just that this stupid game always became difficult the moment she stepped back on the court.
On the next play, she positioned herself with her back to the basket, facing the Colossus center.
She caught the ball, spun halfway to shove her shoulder into him to create space, and launched a hook shot in a high arc over his head, arm fully extended. But the guy was a fucking giant, six-ten, looking down at her like she was a bug he was thinking about crushing under his boot.
He didn’t even have to jump to get it, he just snatched the rebound out of the air and started the attack concluded by Seth.
[Colossus 42-46 Blacklist]
The Colossus machine was starting to roar again.
Alicia grabbed the inbound pass and tried to fire a quick one to Mai. Hall stretched out his arm and deflected the ball with his fingertips. Kael scooped it up on the fly, dribbled twice toward the middle of the court, and then, without even looking at the hoop, he looked up at the ceiling and launched a prayer from the deep.
The ball traced a superb curve in the air before splashing perfectly through the net.
[Colossus 45-46 Blacklist]
"THREE POINTS! THE COLOSSUS ARE TAKING CONTROL!" the commentator screamed into the mic.
We’ve got them right where we wanted them, Kael thought as he headed back to defense. No amazons, no snipers. They’d sacrificed their best weapons. It was fucking suicide.
Over on the opposing bench, the coach nodded. The laws of physics and size were taking over, exactly how he’d predicted before the game started. At this rate, he just had to let biology do the dirty work.
And his secret weapon was just getting started.
Seth recovered the ball while facing Mai. One tiny bounce, barely visible, a small step back to create a gap, and he fired from behind the three-point line.
[Colossus 48-46 Blacklist]
A collective groan rose from the stands. Back at the manor, Zayela clenched her fists on her knees, Sarra kept whispering "no, no, no" over and over, and Amara just crossed her arms and glared at the screen.
On the next possession, Chio got the ball near the half-court line. This was her first real touch since entering the game. She decided to show off: with a sharp flick, she passed the ball from her right hand to her left in front of her, taking a step to the side, trying to hype up the crowd. Seth, standing right in front of her, made sure she knew she wasn’t playing against the Dust Dogs anymore.
His right hand lashed out like a whip, reaching low and striking the ball exactly as it transitioned from one hand to the other. He stole it, took one dribble to build speed, two steps, and dropped the ball into the hoop without any flashy bullshit.
[Colossus 50-46 Blacklist]
Chio stood there, frozen in the middle of the court like an idiot, her hands still open in front of her.
Shit. Shit, shit, shit...
She could feel the eyes of the entire arena on her. The weight of the crowd, the bench, and especially Nash, who had let her in when she shouldn’t have even been on the court. Her throat tightened.
I’m making everyone lose... I’m fucking up everything they built...
Nash looked up at the clock.
3 minutes left.
He stood there for a second, totally immobile, then took a deep breath and jogged over to Chio, who was jogging back down the court with her head down, looking pretty defeated.
"How’s the game feeling to you?" Nash asked.
Chio blinked, looking confused. "Huh?"
"I mean how do you feel it," Nash explained, rubbing his chin. "Is it going good?"
"I..." Chio bit her lip. What kind of question was this? Of course, it was getting bad. She stared down at her sneakers. "Shitty. I feel like I suck. I wanted to do something cool, you know, like Kai, but I got eaten alive in two seconds."
"Why? You aren’t Kai. Just do things your own way, you’ve got this," Nash said simply. He didn’t judge her for being a rookie; he just wanted her to get her head in the game. "Which side do you want the ball on?"
"Which... uh... the right side... wait, no, the left?" She actually stopped to think about it. "My right hand shoots better if my body is already turned toward the hoop when I get the ball. Otherwise, I waste too much time turning."
"And the rhythm? You want the pass before you call for it, after, or while you’re moving?"
"During," she answered instantly. "If I have time to actually think about it, I always fuck up."
Nash nodded. It was good that she was honest about her mistakes.
"Alright, so I’ll give it to you during. When you slow down and pivot, the ball will already be there. Don’t think, just shoot. Just keep one hand open so I can find you."
Chio looked at him, stunned. Nobody had ever spent this much time talking about her specific way of playing. Without even realizing it, her shoulders straightened up. She felt a little more confident.
On the next play, Nash zipped the ball to the wing way earlier than anyone expected. Chio caught it, dribbled once, and drove hard toward the paint. For a split second, pure reflex took over and she remembered what Kai would do.
She took off, leaping high with both hands to slam it home, holding the ball high above her head for a massive dunk.
But the Colossus center was already there.
His massive hand slammed down on the ball, swatting it away with so much force that Chio lost her balance and crashed down, catching herself on one knee.
"Okay," she breathed, pushing herself back up. "Okay, that guy is huge."
"He’s big and hard, like something out of a creative porn movie," Nash joked as he walked past her. "No dunks against him."
"So I... " She swallowed hard. "I shoot."
"Exactly. You shoot."
Chio held her breath, actually blushing a little. Did Nash deliberately let her crash so she could figure it out by herself? Anyway, he sure looked hella hot when he spoke and smiled like this.
The Colossus team went on the attack. Hall was bringing the ball up when Rei closed in on him, arms spread as wide as possible. Caught off guard and pressured, Hall lost control of a bounce that was too high. Mai snatched the ball and sprinted across half the court before anyone could even blink. Two dribbles, a quick layup.
[Colossus 50-48 Blacklist]
"Nice steal, Rei!" Alicia shouted, holding up her palm.
"My court," Rei replied, slapping Alicia’s hand as she passed by.
Kael took the ball and fired a shot right past Rei’s fingertips. The ball circled the rim twice, teasing everyone, and then popped out. Mai grabbed the rebound.
Nash called the play with a single look and received the ball.
Chio sprinted to the wing, dribbled twice, and dove toward the paint. The moment she entered the key, she braked hard, her sneakers screaming against the floor.
Don’t jump... Just throw...
She pivoted, planting one foot firmly to turn around, her body already squared to the basket. She remembered to keep her hand open.
She had barely opened her hand when the ball slammed into it.
"Huh...?!"
She hadn’t even seen the pass coming, she hadn’t even seen Nash. The leather smacked into her palm exactly like he said it would. A laser pass, pinpoint accurate, hitting her perfectly in the rhythm they had discussed.
She tried to shoot, eyes wide with surprise. But the substitude center and Hall, had already crashed down on her. A massive palm slapped the ball away before it could even leave her fingers.
"Dammit!"
The crowd let out a collective groan of despair. But then the ball dropped, bounced once on the floor, straight to Alicia who was wide open on the wing. She caught it in mid-air, didn’t even pause to think, and let it fly.
A clean three-pointer.
[Colossus 50-51 Blacklist]
The groan of the crowd turned into a massive explosion in a split second. People were jumping out of their seats, screaming their lungs out.
"Back to back!" Alicia yelled, throwing two fingers up toward the stands, her hair sticking to her sweaty cheeks. "Two in a row, babies!"
Chio wiped the sweat from her forehead with the back of her arm, her eyes still a bit glazed. Nash jogged over to her.
"Good job."
"I... I didn’t do anything," she murmured. "I missed."
"You drew two defenders on a shot you didn’t even take. That’s what got Alicia open." He tapped her shoulder. "Now we have a plan. They have to respect you outside the paint."
Chio didn’t know what to say. Mai, who was walking past them to get back into position, said in a totally flat voice:
"Not bad, goofball. You have good ideas sometimes."
"... You guys..." Chio puffed out her cheeks, feeling a warm blush burn her face. "You’re both so unfair..."
A warm, soft feeling had settled in her chest, dense and spreading, as if her heart had grown a size and kept growing.
The match resumed before she could even wrap her head around what was happening. Seth took charge of the next play, charging straight down the wing where Rei was waiting for him.
Just as he got within a step of her, he slammed on the brakes. Rei, who was already sprinting to cut him off, flew right past him by about half a meter. He stopped dead in his tracks and fired the ball the second Nash popped into his field of vision. The ball hit the rim and bounced off. But Hall was already in the air, jumping way higher than anyone else. He grabbed the ball with one hand and hammered it down into the hoop in one smooth, violent motion.
[Colossus 52-51 Blacklist]
"HALL!" the substitute of Cross screamed, lunging at him and slapping him hard on the chest.
"Same old, same old," Hall grumbled, giving a little smug smirk.
Blacklist didn’t waste a single second. Nash snatched the ball from the inbound play and started moving it in a zigzag pattern: from Nash to Mai, from Mai to Alicia, and back to Nash again. Without even turning his head to look, Nash slapped the ball with a sharp palm strike, sending it flying right into the paint.
Chio felt it coming before she even saw the ball.
She found herself sprinting toward the hoop without even knowing why. It was like something in her legs was telling her to go, a pulse, a gut instinct. Her body had basically figured out the ending before her brain even processed what was happening.
It wasn’t some complicated mystery; it was just Nash. Nash saw everything from the start. Nash never fucked up. Nash knew exactly where that ball was going to be before the ball even knew.
She stepped into the paint and opened her hand, blindly reaching out.
And the ball landed right in her palm.
Her eyes lit up.
He’s here... They’re all here, she thought.
The substitute center tried to recover in a panic and jumped to block her shot. For Chio, everything suddenly slowed down. She saw him take off: his right arm reaching up, his fingers spread wide, the exact rhythm of his jump. She had a plan at first, just an instinct, but seeing the center move created a new instinct in her head, and that new plan took over.
Now!
She jumped. Her shoulder slammed into the giant’s chest, knocking her body off balance, but she twisted herself in mid-air to put her back to him. As she was falling back down, she flicked the ball over his outstretched hand with the tips of her fingers, almost completely blindly.
Swish.
The whistle blew half a second later. A foul on the shot.
[Colossus 52-53 Blacklist]
Two points, plus one free throw to top it off.
The arena went dead silent after the basket. In the stands, the crowd held their breath for a second, and then they absolutely exploded in surprise.
On the Blacklist bench, Victoria’s lips opened slightly. Dahlia was so stunned that her tablet slipped right off her knees, and she completely forgot to catch it.
Nash watched Chio stand back up. A tiny smile escaped his lips.
Wow... that actually worked.
Chio straightened up. Steam seemed to be rising from her mouth, and she was breathing heavy, like some kind of wild animal. Her eyes were bloodshot, her pupils dilated, and she had this savage look in her eyes that nobody had ever seen before. It was a small detail that most people would miss, but for the 6’7" giant standing there, the truth was plain as day.
[Beast Mode Activated]