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The Light Faeries skated onto the ice. Kai_Hawittari
the yellow Gelert skated into the net while the other five started doing laps.
FleurDelacour67 the skunk Usul and Zeggaro the purple Blumaroo tried to ignore
the laughter from the crowd as they wobbled down the ice.
"This is like, so embarrassing!" Fleur exclaimed.
She suddenly lost balance and landed on the ground.
"I can't believe this," the orange Aisha muttered
to the Krawk skating next to her. "This is so embarrassing! Our defence can't
skate."
"Don't worry Laeyan," EmeraldBlitz responded
reassuringly. "We'll win. And I don't think the crowd is laughing at their skating
abilities. More likely... uh... their jerseys."
The fire Krawk was right. Their pink jerseys
with yellow lace proved to be an eyesore. The crowd as well as the opposing
team doing laps were laughing.
"Hey, great clothes!" a Scorchio laughed as he
pointed at Kyrogi. "You look like a girl!" The fire Draik tried to ignore the
Predator's laugh.
"I'm should beat the stuffing out of that Scorchio,"
Laeyan muttered but was stopped by the blow of the whistle.
The teams took places. Kyrogi, Laeyan and EmeraldBlitz
were forward, Fleur and Zeggaro managed to make their way over to defence while
Kai remained as goalie. The referee skated up.
"Okay," the Chia said, "I want a fair game. Predators...
er... and the Light Faeries, a clean game. Here we go!" He dropped the puck
and there was a mad scramble to get it. The Scorchio who had insulted Kyrogi
faced off against EmeraldBlitz. The Krawk managed to get it first though and
skated down the ice. He dodged past the opposing offence and down to the defence.
He raised the stick in the air, and sent a slapshot straight toward the net.
"GOAL!" the referee Chia yelled as the sirens
went off. The crowd on one side of the arena cheered like mad while the crowd
on the other side remained silent.
"All we have to do is keep our offence up and
they won't even have a chance to get to defence! That way Fleur and Zeggaro
won't have to do any skating," EmeraldBlitz explained as he skated back to Laeyan
and Kyrogi. The two nodded with determined smiles on their faces.
EmeraldBlitz skated back to face-off again, but
the Scorchio wasn't there. He was in a huddle whispering with to other Predators.
Finally the Scorchio skated back with a glint of anticipation in his eye, something
EmeraldBlitz didn't like. All of a sudden, the Scorchio made a quiet snorting
sound when his head was pointed towards EmeraldBlitz's skates. EmeraldBlitz
could fell his skates stick to the ice. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't
unstick his skates.
The referee skated up and dropped the puck. The
Scorchio got the puck easily and skated down the ice. Down the ice he skates,
easily making his way past Zeggaro and Fleur who could barely stand up let alone
stop the juggernaut. The Scorchio shot the puck at the net. Kai's eyes narrowed
in determination. The Gelert saw the puck streak through the air in his direction.
Suddenly, with a dazzling movement, Kai managed to catch the puck... in his
ear! Kai's yellow ribbon-like ear was wrapped around the puck.
"Hold onto the puck!" EmeraldBlitz yelled in
Kai's direction. The Gelert transferred the puck from his ribbon-like ears to
his catcher and waited. The referee's whistle stopped the game.
EmeraldBlitz pulled with all his strength and
pulled his skate out. He saw that it had frozen to the ice! He looked at the
Scorchio. He must have used a Frost ability and frozen the Krawk to the ice!
"Here we go again," the Chia said as he dropped
the puck on the ice between the two players.
Again, the Scorchio blew a Frost attack at EmeraldBlitz,
but he was ready. One well-aimed Scorch technique melted the airbourne Frost
attack in the blink of an eye. The fire Krawk smiled and got the puck. He skated
down the ice toward the net. He raised the stick into the air to shoot the puck.
But the Quiggle in net blew a mist of Frost at EmeraldBlitz. He stood there,
shivering, covered in a sheet of ice.
The Scorchio skated up to him and took the puck
away. EmeraldBlitz shook of the cold and chased after him. "I can't believe
the referee isn't calling penalties!" EmeraldBlitz grunted as he skated up the
rink. But he was too late, all his efforts could beat the Scorchio to the net.
With a quick wristshot he sent the puck towards the net. Kai used his ear again
to catch the puck. But the Gelert felt a searing pain and dropped the puck,
nursing his ear. The puck rolled right into the net.
"NO!" EmeraldBlitz yelled, suddenly enraged.
"He used a Scorch technique on the puck so Kai couldn't hold onto it!"
After a few more minutes of game play, the Chia
blew the whistle signalling the end of the first period. The forlorn Light Faeries
skated up to the bench where Coach Bridge sat. The skunk Kyrii had his eyes
closed and was apparently deep in thought.
"Are you watching this?" Laeyan cried. "That
Scorchio is cheating! He's using battle techniques in a Neohockey!"
"I know," muttered the coach.
"Hey, I've got an idea!" Kai said as he skated
up. "Why don't you use techniques to counter their techniques?"
"No!" he grunted, "I don't care! It's cheating,
and two wrongs don't make a right! And Blitz, if I catch you using your Scorch
technique to negate that player's Frost, I'll bench you so fast you won't know
what hit you!"
"But coach, if you bench EmeraldBlitz then we
won't have enough players," Kyrogi replied in a barely audible whisper.
"THEN WE'LL FORFEIT THE TOURNAMENT!" Coach Bridge
replied in a sudden yell. "If we're caught doing that again, we're out. If they're
caught, they're out. Just keep it up, we're down by only one goal. So show those
Predators what we're made of!"
The team skated out onto the ice rink, and could
here the last line of the coach of the Predator's peptalk. "OK guys, remember,
just keep the techniques up, and we'll win for sure."
"That's despicable," Laeyan spat as she took
her position back on the ice. "We'll show them."
But it turned out Laeyan was wrong. The second
period went by painfully shot, one goal against the Light Faeries after another.
No matter how hard Kai tried, some technique would get the best of him. Sometimes
one of the Predators would blow a Scorch attack at the back of Kai's head, or
freeze him to the ice with a Frost. No matter how hard the team tried, the scoreboard
at the end of the second period showed the team was losing 9-1.
"Don't worry, the referee will notice eventually,"
Coach Bridge reassured his team.
Unfortunately, the third period was painfully
reminiscent of the second. A whopping eleven more goals were scored, leaving
the Light Faeries' heads spinning. Finally, it ended. The buzzer sounded throughout
the arena signalling the end of the game. Score: 20-1. The Light Faeries lost.
To be continued...
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