Thunder Demon (Part 4)

So, without wasting much time, both of them got into their previous starting positions with the university student going back into his old tactics of keeping the ball away from Kyotaro.

Keeping the ball low, he kept it at a slow pace as he watched Kyotaro's movements.

Kyotaro would surely be anxious by now. If he scored even one more point off of him, there was almost a zero chance for him to make a comeback.

A 4-2 lead will surely be a nearly impossible feat to overcome.

True enough, after playing with the ball at a slow pace, Kyotaro soon grew anxious enough to try for a steal by diving forward instead of pushing his opponent back to lower the scoring percentage.

However, his opponent seemed to anticipate this move as his dribbling quickly sped up and went into a quick crossover.

Then, taking the opportunity while Kyotaro regained his bearings, that university student quickly sped up his dribbling as he ran forward towards the basket.

By the time Kyotaro had reacted to his opponent, he was already in mid-jump to score with the layup.

With that, the score was now officially 4-2.

Kyotaro's face now paled a little.

This was bad. His worst fears had actually come true.

With his opponent just one point away from winning this round, how could he not feel worried.

His reputation which he had been building for months would just go down the drain if he were to actually lose this round.

While losing was nothing new to him, it was a different thing to lose to a newbie.

No background, no experience and no outstanding gameplay.

All of his shots were made just by relying on his brains.

In other words, it was an indirect saying that he had no brains instead.

As they went back to the three-point line to start, Kyotaro couldn't help but give a death glare at his opponent.

It was like he was saying....'I'm a bigshot here so don't you dare win against me!'.

However, while his opponent did look frightened, he had also grown braver as he met Kyotaro's glare with his own.

There was a 2 point lead and a 1 point victory gap from winning this round. How could he not feel confident?

But he didn't dare to get too confident. He had already seen it's effects on Kyotaro lest he make the same mistakes.

So, as they started their next round, Kyotaro's opponent proceeded to keep some distance from Kyotaro and keep the ball low as usual, waiting for the right time to score.

However, as time went by, he found that he was unable to press forward at all.

By now, Kyotaro had acknowledged his previous mistake and instead of rushing to the ball, he decided to play it safe and not move an inch.

No matter whether his opponent got closer or slowed down the ball speed, making it look like an easy steal, he would still stand his ground and push him further back.

Observing his opponent's reaction, Kyotaro saw that he was getting more and more anxious as time passed as well.

He was obviously not comfortable in being in a stalemate for too long.

The more time passing meant more possibilities for mistakes to occur.

It was only after another 5 seconds more, did he feel his mental capacity waning.

Not only that, his arms were starting to get sore from the consistent dribbling. Even if he had slowed it down a bit, it was still uncomfortable for his arm to be doing the same repetitive motions for so long.

Then, after a little while more, he finally made a mistake.

As his arms grew tired, he finally missed a beat in his dribbling, making him fumble with the ball.

It was only after catching it with two hands, did he finally get a good grip on it.

However, his eyes widened as he noticed his mistake.

He had two hands on the ball!

No matter where it was, whenever a player has two hands on the ball, they are not allowed to continue dribbling the ball. They were only allowed to pass or shoot with the additional rule of only being able to move one step only.

Seeing that his opponent was caught up in a rather sticky situation, Kyotaro felt that this was his chance.

As such, he began closing in to put pressure on his opponent, forcing him to make a mistake.

His opponent had already taken about 20 seconds for just handling the ball so now, he only had about 4 seconds left before he loses possession of he ball. Coupled with the fact that he could not dribble, his situation seemed especially precarious.

As second by second ticked by, Kyotaro's opponent grew more and more nervous.

Finally, he decided that before time ran out, he would take the shot.

So, without wasting anymore time, he got into a standard shooting stance and jumped!

However, Kyotaro seemed to have expected this as he jumped just about half a second earlier.

As the ball soared through the air, Kyotaro tried his best to reach the ball as he stretched as much as he could.

However, it seemed like he was still a little bit too short of the ball.

After all, his opponent had a height of over 6'2" which gave him a distinct height advantage.

So, as Kyotaro tried to reach for the ball, he saw that the ball was getting further and further away from his hand.

It looked like all hope was lost for him. In the end, his height had been his downfall.

Until....

Pwish!

His one finger touched the ball!

Even if it was just a tiny bit, it still managed to touch it!

Kyotaro now saw hope in the game. That one touch was all that he needed.

True enough, after that one touch, the ball was immediately thrown off it's projection course as it bounced off the backboard instead.

"Oh!!!",the crowd looked on in anticipation.

Was this the chance for the Thunder Demon to make a comeback?

He had already let them down twice. Hopefully, he could do it this time.

This time, when Kyotaro started with the ball, his concentration didn't wane even a little bit as he bulldozed through his opponent.

He had been thoroughly humiliated by this newbie and it was time to show him who's boss!

Soon enough, the score had soon been tied to a 4-4.

Now that they were tied, the final score to reach was increased to 6 which meant a 2 point lead over their opponent to secure the win.

However, this 2 points didn't bother Kyotaro much as he continued steamrolling through his opponent.

His quick and efficient dribbling proved to outmatch his opponent in every way as he was neither able to keep up to it nor react to it.

At the same time, Kyotaro didn't forget to keep his concentration at MAX at all times.

After all, he didn't want the same incident repeating itself from before.

So, after some time, Kyotaro managed to win the match with a score of 4-6.

Kyotaro didn't bother shaking hands with his opponent as he just walked away with a huff.

He wasn't going to shake hands with someone who almost made him lose. He wasn't that good of a sport.

"Wooh!!! Go Kyotaro!!!".the crowd cheered on.

Their attitudes had taken a complete 180 degrees turn.

Even if an underdog triumphed over a king, the people would ultimately want the king to win.

After all, if the king won, it meant more game time for him and more game time meant more entertainment for them.

Then, as Kyotaro walked off the court, he noticed someone waiting for him.

However, when he saw that person's face, his face immediately contorted into a frown.

Standing in front of him was a boy whose age was similarly around his as he sported a sharp jawline along with bright green hair and a pair of glasses on his face.

"Thunder Demon, huh? Seems to me that you can't even handle a newbie properly. Perhaps you should just change your name to Thunder Boy instead. Hur, hur, hur",the boy spoke condescendingly as he laughed in a weird manner.