Testing Duplicity

The kickoff was underway again.

Kelechi passed the ball to Cai. Cai controlled the ball and immediately crossed it over to Neo.

The moment Neo controlled the ball, he regretted it immediately. From the look of things, he should have released a high pass the moment the ball came to him.

Marbles had suddenly spread and blocked all pass routes. Neo was stunned by the sudden movement.

Marbles players marked everyone tightly. Leaving Neo to either lose the ball or beat the man in front of him. And the man in front of him was....

...Soma Salome.

Neo really hated to be in this position right now, he wasn't the best of dribblers, to worsen his situation, he was faced with Soma.

Even though Soma was an attack based player, his defense was also top notch. To worsen matters, Soma knew Neo and all his tricks like the back of his palm.

Neo could only decide to dribble his former best friend, what skill would be more suitable for this than duplicity?

Neo didn't really care about losing the ball, he only wanted to see how duplicity would fare against a real opponent.

Neo now decided to use duplicity. The skill was still very incomplete, well who knows? If he used it now, he might learn about any of his faults and he would even perfect the skill.

Neo grinned as he spoke. Well, ma guy, here's a skill I recently learnt, It's called duplicity.

Neo decided to go with mind games first.

Soma laughed, he knew Neo was never one to go with skills. Ok, buddy. Just be sure not to embarrass yourself.

Neo laughed. Kay, Kay.

Although it may look like Neo threw a casual conversation at Soma, in reality he had actually perked up soma's interest in what he wanted to do. He knew that since Soma had played with him the most, he would never underestimate Neo. As a result, Soma's attention was fully on Neo, he was waiting to see what Neo would do.

And this would only make it easier for duplicity to work on him, after all duplicity was all about using one's high IQ and one's concentration against oneself.

Soma watched Neo very intently. He was waiting to see what Neo would do.

Neo suddenly moved his hand to the left at light speed. He was watching Soma intently and he could see Soma instantly react. Just as Soma was about to move, the next set of actions struck him hard and left him rooted to a spot.

In the next instant after Neo's hand moved at a blinding speed, Neo's body moved to the right almost simutaneously. But still, Neo's body was there. Only if Soma knew it was just a trick of using your brain against you.

Soma looked stunned as Neo suddenly duplicated in his eyes. He paused as his mind raced to what could have possibly transpired in front of him.

Did he really just duplicate himself? How did he do it!?

In a split second, The two copies of Neo disappeared and Neo was no where to be found.

Neo had already accelerated past the static Soma, but he lost balance right after and fell to the floor, knocking the ball into the throwing line.

The most beautiful thing about duplicity was how it made the opponent look stupid. Just now, nobody saw what happened, neither did they know why Soma suddenly paused. Only the person directly in front of Neo would see the skill take form and even that person would think he had just seen a miracle. But Soma knew they weren't in a church, and there was no such thing as a miracle in soccer.

Soma was startled by the sudden noise and he immediately turned around to see Neo behind him, on the floor.

Neo slapped the back of his own head. Crap! Looks like I embarrassed myself, just as you said I shouldn't.

Soma walked away wordlessly and went back to his position.

Hey, are you okay? Walter asked him. Soma's silence was abnormal.

Yeah, I am. That was Soma's reply, but Soma was visibly uneasy.

Alf threw the ball casually, but he was immediately stopped and reminded that that was a foul throw. The throw went to Krystal Fc

Neo threw the ball towards Aesop but the pass was intercepted by Zoe who suddenly rushed out of the defense. Zoe pushed the ball forward and zoomed towards his opponent's goal.

On catching up to the ball that he pushed forward, Zoe suddenly crossed it.

Everyone's eyes followed the trajectory of the ball. Huh? Who's there?

They were all shocked to the bones to see that sight that greeted them.

Harry was suspended in the air, his head was tilted backwards and his entire frame was all about delivering that crazy header.

But it wasn't only marbles that was filled with surprises.

When did he get there!?

The marbles players were annoyed as the cross was killed prematurely by The guardian.

Kelechi jumped very high as he threw himself on the ball, knocking it faraway from the post.

Harry tried to intercept the ball as it flew away but he failed. Seeing that he had missed the rebound, Harry immediately raced back to his post.

Neo controlled the rebound beautifully, looking to counter while the goalkeeper was away. But to his greatest shock, as he turned aroun only to see Harry back in his goal post, his lazy demeanor resurfacing again.

Neo hissed as he passed the ball to Aesop. So that lazy brat has such strength and ability, but he keeps on hiding it under that dirty cloak of laziness.

Berry pressured Aesop immediately. After a moment of tackling Aesop, Aesop returned the pass to Eric.

Eric controlled the ball to roll forward, skipping Alf who stuck a leg to the ball.

Eric raised his leg to make a pass, suddenly, Walter's leg was in his vision, trying to cut off the trajectory of his pass.

Eric cancelled the pass and cut in, completely eliminatng walter.

Eric released a rocket-like shot that sped blisteringly towards the top left corner of marbles goalpost.

Thud!

Harry jumped lightly and caught the ball very easily. He didn't even need more than one touch to save the ball. The ball just sank into his palm, like a magnet on a metal rod.

Harry threw the ball upwards and kicked it a bit hard. The ball spinned as it swerved towards towards Alf.

Alf controlled the ball without a hitch, he took a few steps forward and he was faced with Kelechi Bright.

Alf didn't stop, neither did he try to dribble. Alf immediatly passed the ball to Walter who ran beside him.

Alf easily leveraged on his small size and he ran behind Kelechi.

Walter quickly released the ball with a One-two pass. Just like that, they had passed the guardian.

But how long was it going to take for Kelechi to recover? They had to use their time wisely.

Alf released a long shot that hugged the ground as it sped towards the corner of his opponents goal post.

Mph!

Zuri groaned he pushed the ball back, hitting the floor wth a heavy thud.

The ball fell back to Walter who steadied himself to release the shot, without even making an attempt to control it first.

Cai and Eric stuck their leg forward at the same time, hoping to stop the shot.

The duo could only stare on as Walter cancelled the shot, sending them in the wrong direction.

Kelechi suddenly appeared in front of Walter, but that didn't change much as Walter quickly gave a pass.

Neo slid towards Alf but Alf gently tipped the ball over him and let him keep moving.

Alf released another shot that was yet again saved by Zuri.

This time the rebound fell on Kelechi. Kelechi stood tall as he chested the ball, muscling everyone that contended the ball with him. As soon as the ball was well rested on his feet, Kelechi quickly released a backspin long pass that found Aesop who was alone with the twin tower.

Berry charged at Aesop but Aesop quickly nutmegged him, using his speed against him and let him keep running.

Before Aesop could properly control the ball, it was knocked off him by Zoe. Soma controlled the loose ball.

Soma passed the ball to Alf but it was quickly intercepted by Neo who controlled the ball to a halt.

Neo muttered to himself as he raised his leg to take his favorite type of shot.

To the top corner!