026. Haldir's Role

Hearing Pete's shout, Cleon ran immediately entering the goal area. Pete passed the ball horizontally.

Ural who guarded Cleon was surprised after finding Cleon had already in the goal area. He then activated dash to chase him. But, it had already too late.

Cleon after receiving the ball shot it to the goal.

In the 10th minute, Team B got their first goal. 2:1, team A was still leading.

***

Looking at Cleon who celebrated after scoring a goal, Pete smiled. He then helped Adam who was still sitting on the ground to stand up.

"Are you a druid Pete?" Adam asked while was cleaning his clothes.

"Yes, how is it?" Pete asked for Adam's opinion.

"Almost impossible to guard against. You are terrific, Pete. If I'm not wrong, your other skill is also grass manipulation right?" Adam asked.

"...," Pete only smiled.

***

For the next few minutes, Team A still played aggressively, especially Ural. Being an orc, his playing style was rough and aggressive. He liked to have body confrontation with his opponent. He pushed, pulled the clothes, and used his physical advantage to knock down his opponent, in this chase Cleon.

Although Cleon was a pretty strong player in level 3 mage standard, he didn't have a chance when confronted with Ural head-on. His only option was to avoid Ural. Fortunately, he had a speed advantage.

Pete made a trough pass to Cleon. But when Cleon wanted to chase the ball, Ural pulled his clothes making him fall. Ural then used dash and kicked the ball to the goal. But his shot missed the goal and the ball flew above the crossbar. Adam was frustrated when that happened.

In his opinion, Ural was a good defender. He was strong and aggressive. In battle ball, if you didn't use your head, arms, or feet to directly attack your opponent, then it was not a fault. So pulling jersey, block opponent, and push your opponent with your body were legitimate moves because those didn't harm the opponent directly.

But despite his legitimate 'brutality' as a defender. Ural's flaws were also pretty serious. If Adam didn't order him to pass the ball, he would choose to shoot the ball. And his shooting accuracy was terrible. Because he was ordered by Adam to mark Cleon, he had many chances to get the ball after knocked down Cleon. But he wasted all of his opportunities. Except for the first goal that he scored by heading, his shot had never on the target. Maybe it was also his reason to directly shot to the goal. He didn't want to risk his pass to be taken by opponents when he failed.

As for Haldir, he was pretty much idle because Pete rarely passed to Logan afterward. After his last attempt to pass the ball to Logan almost became a disaster for team B, because instead of trying to score, Logan chose to pass it to Cleon, and Ural without difficulty knocked down Cleon and as Adam's instruction he passed the ball to Haldir, but unfortunately, the ball was out of bounds. Pete had a cold sweat after seeing that. After that, he had never passed the ball to Logan again. Logan could only smile bitterly.

In this game, Logan's creativity couldn't be seen, and that's understandable, because in 3 on 3 that emphasized speedy playing, every elementalist wouldn't have the opportunity to play their game smoothly. Everyone knew elementalist was a great class, their element manipulation was powerful, but they needed a little time to prepare their skill. Because of that, they were destined to never shone in 3 on 3 matches, except if they rose their level that would shorten their preparation when used simple skill.

At the end of the first half, the score was still 2:1. Team A led.

***

Adam sat down on the left bench. Besides him, Ural and Haldir also sat, but they didn't say anything. They knew their master was displeased with their play as a whole. As summoned creatures, they could feel their master's mood clearly by their mental connection and at the moment, their master was disappointed, especially at himself.

Adam knew that experience was important, but never he thought it would so significant that it made a huge gap between him and Pete. This 3 on 3 match became Pete's sole stage to show his brilliant. During the game, he rarely seized the ball from Pete. As an anchor, he was truly defeated. But he couldn't give up. The game still 20 minutes. He had to take the initiative like before.

He contemplated how he got so many initiatives in the early game but in mid-game and end game, he couldn't do much. Then he found a way. He then communicated his finding with his two summoned creatures.

***

Geo the referee called the players to immediately entered the field, as the second half would be started.

Team B looked didn't have any changes. Pete as the playmaker was in the middle, Logan was on the right side, and Cleon was on the left side. It wasn't that they didn't want to have any change, but they were helpless. Too few options that they could take.

Then team A came. Not like the first half, they made a significant change. Adam who was in the middle before, moved to the right side. In the middle, Haldir stood up there coolly, and Ural, he stayed at the left side to mark Cleon.

"Hi Haldir, please have mercy on me, okay?" Pete knew how terrifying Haldir was. One of the reasons why he didn't supply the ball to Logan again because of Haldir's skill.

In Salama Continent, the rarest and the most feared class was the teleporter. They could appear wherever they like and did whatever they wanted without any trace. Pete knew the skill that Haldir had a little different. If the normal teleporter moved from point to point instantly, Haldir could hide somewhere nobody didn't know. So if you saw Haldir disappeared, it didn't mean he was going elsewhere. Maybe he was still near you, watching everything you did.

Haldir then smiled and said quietly so only two of them could hear, "I am watching you."

Pete startled, he could only smile bitterly.

***

As the team that a goal behind, Team B did the kickoff. Pete passed the ball to Logan. in Pete's thought, Logan's chance to defeat Adam was better than when he faced Haldir.

After receiving the ball, Logan confronted Adam directly. First, he made an earth wall under Adam's feet to startle him. Adam felt the ground under him moving, he knew what that meant, so he jumped behind. Logan was glad his trick worked. he then dribbled the ball to the goal area. but when he was only three meters from the goal area, he heard Pete's shout, "Watch out!"

Behind Logan, Haldir emerged from Logan's shadow. He then pushed Logan forward to the goal area. Logan who was surprised, staggered. After regaining his balance, he saw the ball moved past him. The pass was successfully received by Adam. Adam then kicked the ball to the goal.

3:1 for Team A.

Adam then celebrated his first goal merrily. he didn't care if it was just a practice match, he also didn't care if it was just 3 on 3 match. He hugged Haldir and said, "Thank you. that was a great pass."

"Master, it's my duty to made you win," Haldir smiled and said.

"Hahaha. That's true. But it is fun right, this game? Enjoy the game. That's my order," adam laughed. After that, Adam came to Ural to hug him too.

Saw Adam's happiness, Haldir said quietly, "That's true. I'm not a criminal who had to run anymore. The former me was already dead. It's okay to enjoy this second life, just like master said."

A genuine smile rose from his lips

***

Looking at Adam who was happy, Pete sighed, "I don't know have to glad or sad. To get such a reliable friend was gratifying. But, it's not funny to get beaten mercilessly for the next 17 minutes."

What Pete predicted had occurred. for the next 17 minutes, Team A attacked like crazy. Placing Haldir to face Pete was the right decision. Pete's role as a playmaker didn't work anymore. In fact, Haldir had never hindered Pete to pass the ball. He only prevented Pete to dribble the ball to the goal area.

Wherever Pete passed the ball, Haldir always used shadow dive, which made the player of team B frustrated because they didn't know where Haldir would emerge. If they returned the ball to Pete, mostly Haldir would bypass it by emerging from the shadow of the ball. and for cross passing the ball, it also didn't work, Haldir always appeared at the right place.

At the end of the game, four addition goals were scored by Adam or Haldir.

The final score was 7:1, with Team A won.

The three members of team B went out of the field with lowered heads. this was a crushing defeat. the only good thing was Team A was their friends. They cheered themselves by thinking that the next match, they wouldn't give mercy to the opponent. With such a strong lineup, they were ready to face whichever amateur team out there.

***