The Lion And The Ant

With an uncontrolled roll, Chase landed hard on his back, but quickly pushed himself back up.

"Damn you!"

The bronze-haired boy said, as he was in a kneeling position, a couple of meters in front of him.

Still holding the ball, he let out a low growl.

"I am Leo, heir of The House of Lion, and I will not be disrespected by a small Stray..."

Chase went to take a couple of steps back, but realized that it was to late.

Leo, was now only mere inches away from him, their eyes locking for a brief second.

The upper-classman had a deranged and angered look in his topaz eyes.

He gripped the front of Chase's jersey off, and pulled him into a powerful throw.

With full force, the smaller boy was launched in the other direction, and landed with a harsh impact directly into the side of the small hill.

'Damn it all!'

Chase thought, now in a frenzy of pain.

His back felt like it had been crushed by a thousand boulders, and his body was completely soaked in sweat, as well as copious amounts of mud.

Leo, still holding the aetherball underneath his right arm, let out a wicked laugh.

"Take that damn jersey off, you don't deserve to wear that number!"

He yelled, his eyes showing a completely opposite emotion, compared what his terrible grin was conveying. 

"It's just a number! Why the hell does it matter?"

Chase responded, now gripping the sides of the human-shaped crater he was lying in. 

He pulled himself up, and stood. His legs still shaky from the multitude of recent impacts.

Using what he could of his remaining willpower, Chase flexed his legs, as his feet dug into the ground.

With a desperate push, he shot himself into the direction of Leo, and within seconds now had his right arm entangled with the bronze-haired boy.

He was going to gain possession of the ball... No matter what.

With a tug, he tried his hardest to rip the ball free from Leo in the short amount of time that he had.

Using the momentum from the launch, Chase was able to only free the ball, as he dug his hand into the ground, dragging the dirt with him as he had somewhat caught his landing.

The leather ball was now whirling around the clearing, soaring threw the air around them.

Chase took a quick glance at Leo, who now showed even more obvious signs of anger in his eyes.

The two made brief eye contact before both began to swiftly sprint in the direction of the aetherball.

As soon as the ball was within distance, two different hands grabbed opposite sides of it, pulling with as much strength as each could muster.

Chase was not going to win this clash.

Losing his grip, he was pulled onto the ground, just barely catching himself with his arms.

Leo recoiled slightly, but now had the ball back underneath his shoulder.

Suddenly, Leo was thrown into the dirt, with what must have been a terribly painful collision with the truck of a tree.

The ball sprung free, but was quickly scooped up by a boy with bright red hair, that had gotten extremely messy in whatever conflict he had gotten into throughout the match.

Jack had already began to run in the direction of the other goal, he gave Chase a quick glance, and with his free hand pointed toward the opponents side of the arena.

Chase didn't understand at first, and then remembered a very obvious fact about the sport.

It revolved around a team, not one person...

Pushing himself up, he began to run in the same direction, dodging around trees as his body had gone numb from the pain.

Suddenly, someone screamed in the direction of a nearby forested area.

Two different enemy players jumped out of two bushes on opposite sides of Jack.

Outstretching his free arm, his hand grabbed hold of one of the boy's padded helmets, and shoved them directly into the ground.

The other had pounced onto Jack's back, and wrapped his arms around the red-haired boy's neck.

Letting out a frustrated yell, he awkwardly threw the leather ball a little ahead of Chase's direction. 

Quickening his pace, he ran forward, hoping the intercept the ball before any other players could join the fray.

Taking a deep breath, he was able to just barely snag the ball out of the air. He fumbled with it as he continued to take large strides in the direction he had hoped was that of the opposing side's goal.

Eventually, as he ran he was able to copy the position that both Jack and Leo had used with the ball, tightening it underneath his dominant arm.

Suddenly, directly in front of him, three defenders were standing, and waiting patiently for the ball to come their way.

'Crap!'

Chase clenched his teeth, as they had spotted him.

He was completely surrounded, and Leo was probably already close on his tail.

"Hey!"

A familiar yell echoed above the trees.

Equan was running along the branches above him, waving his arms frantically.

Just before Chase was about to slam into one of the defenders, he slung the ball straight up, and into the air.

SLAM!

Chase was already on his back, as he had ran straight into the chest of one of the defenders.

Purple glaring eyes were staring down at him; however, unlike most of his other teammates, Gideons eyes showed no signs of hatred toward the nameless boy.

Equan was already out of sight, before a loud horn sounded within the empty stands.

"Damn, thought Hans couldn't be scored on, if it was a one on one."

One of the defenders said, as he rubbed his face frustratedly. 

Gideon held out a hand, offering it to Chase.

Letting the boy of Voidborn help him up, he looked far ahead in the direction that Equan had ran into.

'How did he score so quick?"

He asked, which resulted in a shrug from Gideon.

"The Prodigy of Lightning leads the team in goals right now, so I'm not really surprised, but he isn't a head on attacker which makes me question it a little."

He responded, taking his helmet off, as his long black bangs lifted, revealing two deep purple eyes, that shined like the depths of an endless void.

'Weird...'