Seeming not to care about Valor’s disappointment, the coach continued to speak with his hands on his hips. “Look, a lot of football has to change now that we have the System. Players are faster and stronger than ever, and it’s easy for one side to have a dominant advantage if the league isn’t careful. Because the cruel truth is that the superior players became even more superior with the System.”

Rubbing his chin, the coach looked at his clipboard and then shook his head. “Hell, who knows if football can even be played with such uneven talent. There might need to be an enforced Skill or Stat parity between teams in the future. But! Because the fastest players got even faster… it’s the mechanics of throwing that have really changed. Sure, a defender can sprint the length of the field in less than twenty seconds, but can they run faster than someone can throw the ball? No! They never could. The System didn’t change that.

“As things stand, Tutt here can throw the ball fast enough that basically no time passes between when he throws the ball and when it reaches the receiver’s hands. In the future, cornerbacks will need to study the typical catching postures of receivers in order to guard them effectively. And the reason that you, Clark, are gonna play most snaps is that you have the most reliable catching posture of all our players.”

Tutt nodded and crossed his arms. “Noticed it in practice. There are some variations in timing with other people in the way they turn, but you are always very precise. Makes it easy to know where to throw the ball.”

When the referee blew his whistle, the teams went back onto the field. Of the following five plays before halftime, three were running plays for only a handful of yards each and one was a pass play to Valor for twelve yards. The Vipers contentedly kicked a field goal for three points and raised their lead to 13 to 3 before halftime.

*****

How can I be the face of football… when I can’t even win a single game?

“Shit…. Shit!” Jake Tuck smashed the wooden bench in the locker room to smithereens with his fist and then looked around with red eyes for something else to break. Right now he needed to get rid of some of the heat that filled his chest. He was incensed even further to see his team looking at him with pity and derision in their eyes. Raising his head, he pointed around at the team and guffawed loudly. “You think this is my fault? You think this would have happened if you hadn’t all been holding me back?”

The coach walked over toward Jake with a stormy expression. “Tensions are running high, but you need to calm the fuck down. We have half a game still to play and there is no reason to torpedo our chances of coming back by saying something you will regret. Close your mouth and take a shower, Jake.”

“The only thing I will ever regret is joining this shitty-” Jake began, but before he could continue further, the coach’s fist flashed forward and slammed into Jake’s diaphragm. For a split second, shock crossed Jake Tuck’s face. Somehow, the deadly danger of the System had faded from his mind recently. It was only football that had consumed him. And when it came to football, Jake Tuck was used to being king.

This blow dethroned him in a lot of ways, right in front of the rest of his team.

Jake stumbled and fell backward. The coach looked down at him with a heavy glance. “Calm down. We are still in this game. We just need to change up the offense. Throw a few more screens, rely on spreading out the field horizontally to weaken their defense. This isn’t over. Don’t have a meltdown.”

Slowly, Jake recovered the ability to breathe as his diaphragm stopped spasming. His first instinct was to retaliate, but his better sense quickly eradicated that desire. He was still angry, but he let that anger recede somewhat. Yes. What’s really important is winning. As long as we win...

Seeing that the dangerous fire was slowly vacating Jake’s eyes, the coach turned to survey the rest of the players. “We already have the plays; it’s my responsibility that we kept getting stuffed by their defense. I’ve already worked out a few that should work. They are on the large board in the meeting room. In the meantime… as this is an inaugural game, remember that there will be an extra-long half time, almost an hour and a half. You can do what you want for most of the half, but for the last fifteen minutes, I want you back here warming up. Understood?”

You are really willing to take the responsibility for this? Jake thought bitterly. When I can’t...

“Got it, coach,” The players nodded.

Before he left, the coach spared Jake Tuck another glance. Then he walked back to his office. Most of the other players left too, leaving Jake Tuck alone with the splintered wood of the bench.

“Shit,” He muttered to himself. Then he rubbed his eyes. He sat that way for a few minutes until the drifting notes of music wound their way through the heavy stone walls of the stadium to reach the locker room. Grumbling, Jake Tuck heaved himself to his feet. He didn’t know anything about the pop star coming to perform at the half-time show, but it might clear his head a little.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

And the coach was right. They weren’t out of this game yet.

So Jake Tuck walked up through the passages available to the players in order to arrive at a viewing box to watch the halftime show. But halfway there, Jake Tuck walked around the corner and stopped dead in horror.

The hallway was lit by a line of fluorescent lights, but the grey walls still made the tight space seem dark. There was a body sitting slumped against the wall. A pool of blood was slowly spreading outward from the body. A familiar man in a crimson cloak was crouching in front of the body, slowly bringing his hands to his lips.

“E….ezekiel….?” Jake said aloud. Then instantly, his hand jumped to his mouth as the other’s head snapped sharply upward and considered Jake. Similar to the earlier confrontation with the coach, Jake suddenly found himself completely out of his depth. His focus had been so long on football that to suddenly be reminded that most people concerned them with killing was extremely disturbing.

As the bodyguard assigned to him by the Order Valorem stood, Jake couldn’t help taking a step back. Someone… just died here… Jake retreated another step. The bodyguard just stared toward him for several seconds before speaking.

“It seems like a terrorist organization really plans to do something during the game,” Ezekiel spoke with a surprisingly cool and calm voice, considering his bloody hands. Although his robe was probably stained with the blood, it was impossible to notice due to the color of the cloth. “Luckily I found one of their agents and was able to subdue him in time.”

“You… but he….” Although Jake’s emotional imbalance from being crushed from the football game had caused him to panic more easily, he was still someone who had survived this long in the System. Very quickly, his expression firmed as he looked warily over at Ezekiel and then down at the crest on the dead body’s chest. “You are both from the Order Valorem, are you not? So…”

“Are you suspicious of me?” Ezekiel smiled. Then he reached down and lifted the body’s arm. Pushing down the sleeve, Ezekiel revealed a strange crimson symbol that had seemed to be branded onto the body’s skin. As Jake looked on, the bright color slowly began to fade. “This is the mark of those who believe in the Red Revival. Does that help alleviate your suspicions?”

“...Of course,” Jake walked forward with more confidence now, crouching next to the body. It seemed that Ezekiel had killed the man by slitting his throat. His blood still dripped unwillingly out of the wound. “We should report this to the head of the Order Valorem; I know where his box is.”

“I agree, but we must be careful. If there is at least one mole of the Red Revival here… there are probably more.” Ezekiel reached up and wiped some of the blood off of his face. That made Jake frown a little. Why was there so much blood on Ezekiel’s face…? Perhaps the fight had been more difficult than he originally thought.

Still, its a good thing that my bodyguard is powerful… Jake looked down at the gruesome wound on the corpse’s neck.

Perhaps because of the dangerous situation, the two rapidly came to an agreement. Jake Tuck led the way through the player’s passageways to quickly reach the box of the Order Valorem. They passed several other Order Valorem guards, but after Ezekiel’s warning, Jake Tuck agreed and didn’t mention anything about the body they had left behind or the threat it represented. He simply awkwardly nodded as the guard’s clearly recognized him and looked at him with pity in their eyes.

Dammit… there’s an even bigger threat than losing a game right now…! Jake Tuck clenched his fists. If the Red Revival succeeds here and kills a large number of people… Football on New Earth could be set back years! This cannot be allowed to happen.

Even if it’s not me that leads the Zone… as long as we give an outlet for the violence in humanity…

Right as they were about to climb the stairs to the box level, they were met by two figures standing in front of the exit to the stairwell. Jake’s expression slowly twisted as he noticed that their eyes were dyed completely red.

“Drinking the blood to prevent me from controlling them?” The left man said.

The right man grinned. “Clever. But it is not clever to work against me.”

“Who… what are you…?” Jake asked. The two men with red eyes ignored him. Ezekiel ignored the men with red eyes, continuing to walk forward up the stairs.

The two men shook their heads and flicked their wrists. Blades of blood blossomed into their hands and then they rushed down the stairs toward Ezekiel.

“Touch of Corruption.” Ezekiel’s hands were quickly covered in a bubbling purple liquid. He accelerated forward and easily dodged the strikes from the blades of blood. When his hands made contact with the skin of the two men, black lines quickly began to snake outward, spreading the corruption to every portion of their body.

Understanding that this fight was beyond him, Jake could only grit his teeth and wait behind his capable bodyguard.

But the two men laughed, even as the black lines of corruption crisscrossed their bodies and began to swim through the crimson blood covering on their eyes. “Do you think poison will work? Even if the hosts die, the drop of blood I gave them can manipulate the deceased bodies to continue fighting. Heh, still thirsty for more blood? Because otherwise-”

“Cleansing Fire,” Ezekiel said softly. Instantly, the purple liquid on his hands was eradicated by white fire that sprung to life from his fingertips. And just as quickly, the white fire leapt from Ezekiel’s hands and ripped its way through the bodies of the two men to consume the black lines on their bodies. But the fire didn’t care what it had to burn in order to eradicate corruption.

The two men began to scream, but that point they were already human torches.

Rolling his shoulders, Ezekiel continued to walk forward. As the two men were reduced to charred husks and collapsed, he turned around and looked at Jake Tuck. “You coming? I don’t know how to get there on my own.”