Chapter 422: Titan Drops: Blacklist VS Colossus(5)
Chio walked toward the free-throw line, gripping the ball. She took the shot without even looking at anyone.
[Colossus 52-54 Blacklist]
The mood had greatly changed, the losing game was mixing the ingredients for a dramatic finish. But Seth didn’t give a single fuck about anyone’s improvement.
He flew down the court like a goddamn rocket. Bounce, two, and then he slowed down, coming to a dead stop. Rei stepped up in front of him, arms spread wide to block the path, but Seth didn’t even need to dribble past her. He just shot the ball right through the gap that his own insane speed had created. The ball barely grazed Rei’s fingertips as it flew toward the hoop.
[Colossus 54-54 Blacklist]
Chio took the inbound pass. This time, nobody even had time to think of a plan. She drove hard toward the substitute center, bouncing the ball three times in a row. The defender tried to keep up, but Chio planted her left foot hard and leaped backward to create some space. While drifting away, she let it fly, right arm extended toward the basket, her wrist snapping forward in one clean, sharp motion, a move that she would never had succeeded on the first attempt in normal circumstances.
[Colossus 54-56 Blacklist]
"WHAT THE HELL IS WITH THIS GIRL?! A new phenomenon is rising in Blacklist’s planet!" the commentator screamed into the mic.
Nash, jogging back to defense, let his eyes wander over the four girls around him, checking them out one by one. It worked, everything was working.
The speech before the game had lit the fuse, and the actual playing had done the rest. Every good play just added fuel to the fire.
Alicia sinking her threes, Chio drawing two defenders away, Mai stealing the ball, and Rei nailing that block. It was all piling up, and little by little, the girls were getting into the zone state.
Nash took a deep breath, his chest heaving more than usual. He knew the "Beast Mode" and "The Zone" were the secret sauce for winning, but they were exhausting. It would leave them completely drained by the end. But the timing was perfect: they were in the final stretch of the quarter, and the halftime break was coming up. They’d have time to recover.
It wasn’t sure they would all recover by the beginning of the second half, reason why he wanted to experiment it with the subs.
I have to ride this momentum, I can take them in the zone, he thought.
He glanced at the shot clock. 1:46 left.
*Alright. One last push.*
And just like that, Nash went back to being what he always was: the playmaker. He was like a motor with three lungs, running non-stop, sliding back to help Rei on every fast break, grabbing the ball, bringing it up, and delivering it to the right person at the exact right moment. He threw out encouragement as he ran.
"Rei, to the left! Close the angle!" he shouted.
"Got it!" she snapped back, shifting her position before he even finished the sentence.
Kael caught the ball while facing Mai and threw up a three-pointer, totally off-balance. The ball bounced twice on the rim and finally dropped in.
[Colossus 57-56 Blacklist]
"This guy is unbeatable," Alicia sighed, planting her hands on her hips and stretching her chest.
"He’s not unbeatable," Mai replied, wiping sweat off her forehead with her arm. "He’s just a pain in the ass."
The inbound play started. Chio bounced the ball, drew two defenders toward her, and held the ball for exactly a half-second longer than anyone else would have. That half-second was all she needed. She fired a fast pass toward the wing, where Alicia was already sprinting into position.
A clean three-pointer.
[Colossus 57-59 Blacklist]
"MY KING!" Alicia screamed, pointing a finger at Nash, completely losing her mind with excitement. "THAT WAS FOR YOU!"
Nash just shook his head, a smirk on his face.
Yeah, alright, he thought. She’ll definitely be the first one of them that I’ll knock up.
Seth led the offense again. A dribble, a stop, a shot. Nash and Rei were already closing in on him, but it didn’t matter, he just let it fly.
[Colossus 59-59 Blacklist]
Nobody cheered. For once, the whole stadium went dead silent. You could practically feel the tension in the air, like a string about to snap.
Blacklist brought the ball back up. Mai grabbed it, bouncing it twice as she drove hard toward the paint. The substitute center tried to wall her off, sticking to her like glue, but it was useless. Nash cut behind her, caught a sneak pass, and flicked it right back with just his fingertips, the ball barely even touched his skin. Mai, already sprinting the other way, snatched it out of the air and slid it right through the hoop with a flick of her wrist.
[Colossus 59-61 Blacklist]
Kael decided to answer back his own way. He hoisted the ball up like he was going for a jumper, and Rei leaped up, trying to swat the shot away with a block.
But he had tricked her.
With a quick step to the side, he let the ball go just as she was landing.
Swish. Two points, scored without a single shred of doubt.
[Colossus 61-61 Blacklist]
After that, the game just kept going, both opponents trading blows.
There was a moment, somewhere in those final seconds, where the five Blacklist players completely stopped talking to each other. No more shouting plays, no more glancing, no more calling for the ball. They didn’t need to.
Rei was moving to the next spot before anyone even asked her to move. Mai was already standing exactly where the pass was going to land. Alicia was sprinting into the open space before Chio had even carved it out.
And Chio? She was shooting without even thinking, never missing a single shot.
Nash watched his hand move, watched his pass fly away, and for the first time in the match, he honestly didn’t know who was calling the shots anymore, he literally functioned on auto mode, his instinct targeting the perfect teammate to pass the ball to.
Chio got the ball on the left wing, her right hand already positioned, and she fired. The ball passed through the net without even touching the rim.
[Colossus 61-64 Blacklist]
Up in the stands, Snow had stopped talking a long time ago. Chloé, for once in her life, had nothing to say. She sat there with both hands gripping her knees, her mouth open.
Mirage wasn’t smiling anymore. Next to him, Kaito was leaning forward, chin resting on his fists. Maya had completely forgotten she was chewing gum.
On the Falcons’ side, Rain just watched, frozen, realizing that this was the kind of team he had always wanted to build. Beside him, Alexia had her hand over her mouth, and Griffin hadn’t blinked in minutes.
Back at the manor, nobody dared to breathe. Lina was squeezing Zayela’s wrist so hard she didn’t even notice, and Saya was biting her own sleeve. Behind the crowd of stunned spectators in the street, Drex had finally taken his hands out of his pockets, his eyes trembling.
On the opposing bench, the coach had gone quiet. He looked at the court, his brain kind of short circuited.
Seth got the ball. A dribble. A stop. A shot.
[Colossus 65-69 Blacklist]
Nine seconds left.
Rei handled the inbound pass. Mai caught the ball and immediately zipped it over to Alicia, who swung it back to Chio. Chio held onto it just long enough to draw every single eye on the court before launching it into the empty air, exactly where Nash was already arriving. Nash didn’t even have time to think; he just touched it with his fingertips to redirect the ball.
Rei, who had cut toward the paint without being told, caught the ball right at chest height. She grabbed it silently and slid it into the hoop, her eyes barely even looking up, like she knew the exact position of every object on this court.
The five seconds that followed couldn’t bear a fruit. The buzzer screamed.
Nobody moved. Not a single cheer, not a single shout. The entire arena was suspended in time, eyes glued to the scoreboard.
[Colossus 65-71 Blacklist]
A six-point lead, for Blacklist. The people who had come to watch a slaughter were staring at the numbers, unable to process what they had just witnessed.
In the middle of the court, Nash finally caught his breath. Around him, the four girls collapsed, dripping with sweat. There were no "Beast" of Blacklist on that floor anymore. There was only a machine, and he was just one gear in it.