*Fwoomp!!* Was the sound of impact on another of my teammates? It collided with them right in the center of their chest.

“Gahh!” Was the desperate death rattle they let out as they briefly collapsed to the ground before being consigned to a zone of purgatory to watch the rest of their brothers and sisters in arms being slaughtered by the merciless and wicked forces of Jackie and her legion of death.

“We can’t beat them!” Said the desperate voice of Gregory, standing beside me. We both continued to dodge the red spheres of death that seemed to come for us with every step we took. “They’re just too coordinated. I don’t know how they can work together so well already. It’s like they've been playing together as a team for years!”

“Get ahold of yourself, Greg!” Beth shouted over to us, clearly having overheard Gregory’s gloomy and borderline treasonous prediction. “If you have time for crying and whining, then you have time to throw more balls towards Jackie’s stupid face.”

“But…” Gregory started to protest before I jumped in to add my voice.

“No, she’s right, Gregory. If we give up hope now, we’ve lost for sure, but if we stick together and keep trying our hardest, then we can still pull this off.” I said with what I hoped was the most convincing and motivating voice I could manage.

“I-I’ll try.” Gregory finally replied while dodging another high-speed red globe aimed at his face. “I won’t let you or the rest of the team down.”

“That’s the spirit!” Scott said, who was also still standing on our side. He and Beth both seemed to have taken on the role of my personal bodyguards as they caught, deflected, and dodged any incoming attacks in my direction. So far, they’ve been successful, but as the number of other people on our side has been continually whittled down, their job had become harder and harder.

Gregory valiantly charges to the front of our remaining line of defenders. He picked up a stray ball, readying himself to make his strike against the other side. He cocked back the arm holding the red spherical object as he looked for a suitable target to hurl it towards. As he lingered and looked around, he ducked and weaved the incoming shots coming from the other side. They must have realized that he’d found his courage once more and were giving their all to strike him down, this time for good.

He finally settled his eyes, not on any of our still-standing foes but on the suspended structure hanging over the heads of all our fallen comrades, the backboard for one of the gymnasium’s basketball hoops.

Seeing where his eyes landed, I asked him. “Are you sure you can hit that? It’s all the way on the other side. It's a really hard shot to make…”

“I can make it.” He tols me confidently.

“Don’t take risks. Focus on all the easier targets in front of you!” Beth yelled in his direction while keeping her focus on not getting hit herself.

“I can make it.” Gregory repeats, steadily focusing his mind on the challenging task ahead of him.

“You got this, man!” Scott cheered.

“I can…” Gregory started to say again before a speeding hyper-sonic ball of death slammed right into his face.

*Boonk!!* Was the horrifying sound of impact the horrible red object made as it collided with Gregory’s face.

“Ooof!” That was all he could manage to say before finally meeting his end on the field of battle. The same battlefield the rest of us still hoped to survive on somehow.

Clearly, Gregory must have gotten a bit too focused on hitting his target and failed to dodge and avoid all the incoming shots coming our way. A genuinely tragic mistake and a pitiful demise.

“Well, so much for that sad little plan of yours. I can’t wait to see how your next attempt will fail as well.” The cruel voice of her great enemy, Captain Jackie Batista, shouted over to those few of us who still remained on our side. “I’m sure whatever you come up with, it will be equally as pathetic and funny as that last one.”

A cruel and imperious smile marred her face as she casually stood on the other side of the gymnasium. She stood there, basically unmoving, as she sent her snide comments over at us. She obviously wasn’t concerned about any attempts from our side to hit her, or maybe she was just that confident in her own skills.

“Why bother?” Said the irritating voice of Luke, who was standing at Jackie’s side. “We may well just finish them off. There’s only a handful left.”

I grimaced in anger at his comment, but he was right, unfortunately. Giving him even that much credit sent a spike of annoyance through me.

Looking around, I quickly got a count of the remaining members of my team, there was me, Beth, Scott, and Naomi who were all still standing. I didn’t know Naomi very well, but she was apparently pretty athletic and played on the girl's soccer team for our school. It wasn't really too much of a surprise then that she…

*Fwoomp!!* Was the sound of a rather rude dodgeball interrupting my train of thought and impacting with Naomi's gut as she, too, was finally taken down.

“Ooph!” Came the anguished last cry from Naomi’s lips. It was hard to watch as she to fell to the ground and then joined the rest of our fallen teammates.

“Frick!” I loudly exclaimed, beginning to lose hope myself. What chance did we have with just me, Scott, Beth, and…

Turning to look at the far end of our side, well away from the center where all the action had been taking place, stood Mira, who seemed to be casually just watching the onslaught take place all around her.

There were occasional shots sent her way, but she seemed to effortlessly avoid them, almost like it was an afterthought for her. She just kept standing there, looking both bored and awkward. She was also beginning to accumulate a small stockpile of vital ammunition just lying around her, the failed attempts that the other team had made at taking her down.

“Mira!” I shouted at her. “Help us out, would you!”

“Um, do I have to?” She awkwardly asked. “I mean, is that like an order or something?”

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“What?” Was all I could manage to say to her before Beth jumped in as well.

“Yes, dammit, that’s an order.” She screamed in the strange, shy girl's direction. “Throw the damn balls already.”

“Fine, if Captain Morrow wants me to throw them, then I guess I’ll just have to do it.” She said with reluctant apathy in her words and movements as she began to reach down to collect a ball to throw.

“Y-you don’t need to call me that.” I petulantly protested. “It sounds weird.”

“Ah, would you prefer Officer Morrow? I guess that might be more fitting.” Mira calmly countered.

“Just throw the damn ball already!” Beth ordered.

*Fwwish!!* *Boonk!!*

The sound and sight of the casually aimed ball flying through the air and beaning Luke right in his stupid face were beautiful and moral boosting.

“Yes!” Came the excited shouts from Beth, Scott, and myself. All of us were thrilled at the small but much-needed victory.

“Tsk, well, let’s see how you like this then.” Jackie arrogantly declared before taking a red ball that was handed to her without even asking. She marched up to the center front of their side and, with quick contemptuous ease, hurled the crimson color messenger of death right into one of Beth’s legs.

“Out.” Jackie calmly declared before turning her back on us and walking back to where she previously had been standing.

“Grraahhh!” Beth defiantly roared before reluctantly walking over to join the rest of the defeated members of our team.

“Frick.” I mumbled quietly to myself.

Now it was just Me, Scott, and Mira against more than double that on Jackie’s side.

How can they be beating us so badly? I’m supposed to have magic superpowers that let me slay evil monsters, but Jackie and her cohort are trouncing us.

Was I just a terrible leader? Was my plan that bad? What did I do wrong?

“Come on, Jenni, focus!” Said the confident, reassuring voice of Scott at my side. “We’re still in this as long as even one of us is still standing.”

“Y-yeah, y-you’re right.” I nervously replied, not feeling particularly confident or brave at the moment. My heart was beginning to sink, despite Scott’s words. If I couldn’t even win against another team of ordinary teenagers at dodgeball, what hope did I have against something truly dangerous, like all the monsters I was expected to fight, sooner or later.

I can’t fling any shadow bolts or other spells at them to win the match. As entertaining and satisfying as it may be, it’d wouldn’t help with dodging or throwing the ball. Plus, I wasn’t sure how much leeway the veil gave me when it came to things like that, and testing those limits right now seemed extremely stupid.

No, all I could rely on were the modest improvements my increased attributes and skills gave me. While my physical capabilities weren’t too different than they were before, it was the only advantage I had to work with.

“Scott, stop trying to protect, and just focus on taking down as many of them as you can.” I ordered the slightly confused boy at my side. “Mira, come up and stand beside me and keep doing your thing. Don’t let them hit you, and take out as many of them as you can.”

“Alright, you got it!” Scott happily agreed.

“Fine…” Mira said grumpily as she slowly shuffled herself over to where I wanted her.

“You’re down to just three and we outnumber you by, like, a lot. You might as well give up now and save us all the time.” Jackie’s friend Niki told us while raising the red ball she was holding threateningly in our direction. “No? Alright then…”

She gave it her all as she tossed her projectile right at me, but to both of our surprise, I caught it in my hands.

“W-wha…?” Was all Niki could muster as a response to seeing the ball in my hand and the smug grin on my face.

“Out.” I politely informed her as the girl walked off from the rest of her team with a sad, defeated slump on her shoulders.

“Tsk.” Jackie said again while moving up to take Niki’s place on their line. “Let’s put an end to this already.”

Jackie’s team redoubled their onslaught on our few remaining members still standing. Ball after whooshing ball came flying at us, and no matter how many times we managed to dodge and weave around the shots coming for us, more and more just seemed to keep coming. The hail of red spheres seemed to be continuous and unending.

I somehow managed to keep up with all the projectiles coming my way. Shots to the head, shots to the torso and limbs, I managed to evade and dodge all of them. Despite this being just a game, I really, really hoped that whatever skill I had related to dodging would increase after all this.

Its impact and usefulness have been made very clear to me, even just from the effect the skills seemed to have on me in this game. Before I was changed, I knew for sure that I would already be out by now. There is no way the old me would be able to dodge all these shots.

After catching another ball thrown at me, I did a quick assessment of the other side. We’d somehow shrunk the other team's numbers down to just five. Our side didn’t just weather the onslaught they threw at us. We crippled their numbers advantage as well. We could still do this.

*Boonk!!*

“Oof!” Scott exclaimed painfully as Jackie sent another well-placed shot right into his face. Down he went, and our number was reduced to just two of us still standing.

“Oops, I hope your boyfriend’s face isn’t too messed up from that.” Jackie mockingly told me. “It’d be truly a shame to ruin such a pretty face.”

Jackie concluded her words by showing me a cruel, sadistic smile. She had said all that she needed to.

“W-wha-, he’s not…we’re not…w-why would…” I ceaselessly muttered

This girl…

For a brief moment, the sight of losing Scott and one of the few remaining members on our side almost caused me to lose hope again, but hearing Jackie’s words that were meant to get a rise out of me completely skewed my thoughts in a different direction.

Her words were one thing, but seeing that stupid, arrogant, condescending expression on her face filled me with rage. I was going to take her down today, one way or another.

“Come on, Mira, are you with me?” I asked her in a strong, commanding voice.

“W-what do you mean with you? In what way?” The unusual girl asked in a nervous tone.

“We’re taking the other team down. Are you with me?” I asked again.

“O-oh, well, I guess, if that’s really what you want then.” She said back in her usual bored and uninterested tone of voice once more, but she did manage to blast one of the other team members in the face right after she had said it though. I’d take her cold response if it meant she could keep hitting the other team like that.

The epic struggle taking place in the middle of North Shasta High’s gymnasium continued onward, with somehow more and more balls being thrown back and forth, despite fewer active participants on the field until, eventually, there were just three people still standing. Mira, Jackie, and me.

Despite their side’s best efforts, none of them could land a hit on Mira and me, and with enough time, we managed to pick off the rest of Jackie’s legion of death and evil. We were all panting and out of breath by that point, as a slight lull settled over the remaining three left standing.

“Y-you…why are you two so hard to hit?” Jackie’s winded voice asked us, all the sass and insults having been drained out of her.

“I’m not really that hard to hit. Maybe you just suck?” Mira calmly inquired.

“H-how dare you…!” Jackie started to yell at Mira indignantly before I took advantage of her lack of attention towards me and threw the ball I’d been holding in my hands right into her smug, stupid face.

*Boonk!!*

“Oomphff!” She exclaimed in an embarrassingly undignified manner as her face was flung sideways, and spit and saliva flew out of her open mouth. Gross.

*Fwheeeet!!*

Coach Philip had blown his loud whistle mere moments after the ball had impacted Jackie’s face.

“Team Jenni wins!” Coach Philip declared to the chorus of loud and ecstatic cheers from the rest of our happy and exuberant team members, that had all been standing outside the playing field watching us.