He's Not Starting?

Daniel froze up as his brain tried to process the words that came out of the coach’s mouth. ‘I’m…not starting?! Then what was all of that hard work for?!’ he lamented. “Coach, what do you mean by that?” Daniel demanded.

“Exactly what I meant,” replied the coach simply.

“B-B-But, I practiced so hard so that I can play!” argued Daniel.

“You may be able to play after relearning the game, but it’s still too soon for you to go out there,” said the coach. “In other words, you are still inexperienced. So until you can regain enough experience to regain your place as a starter, you will now start as a bench player.” Daniel understood the coach’s reasoning but he was still unsatisfied with the decision. The coach noticed this and emphatically added, “End of discussion.”

Toby, the player that will be replacing Daniel as the starting Igniter for this game, snickered as he passed by. “Don’t worry, Mr. Superstar, I’ll make sure we’ll win this game,” he added derisively.

Daniel took the bench—there was nothing he could do now except watch the game from the sidelines. Both teams walked out onto the court and prepared to get into position for the game to begin. Suddenly, as Daniel watched his teammates on the floor, screens began to appear next to them. This unexpected development made him jump up from his seat. The little commotion he caused made everyone turn their eyes to him. Daniel quickly settled back down with an apologetic smile. ‘What the hell was that?’ he asked himself with a gulp. Daniel blinked his eyes a few time and returned his attention to his teammates. Once again, the screens from before popped up. Their appearance were just like the game character screens from RPG games. ‘Is everyone else seeing this?’ he asked himself. After giving a thorough look to his left and right, he confirmed that he was the only one.

When Daniel focused on the screens, he noticed that a bunch of words appeared. As he read them, he realized that they were information about the player next to them: name, age, position, and magical repertoire. He then turned his attention to the enemy team and realized that he could also see their information. ‘Wait a minute,’ he quickly realized, ‘isn’t this a cheat skill? Like, isn’t this basically cheating?!’ He quickly shook his head and put his head in his hands. ‘This is a skill that I absolutely cannot use! Why did the god give me this anyway? Sure, I want to be the best professional athlete in this world, but I don’t want to cheat my way to the top!’ A whistle was blown and the game began. ‘Argh, I’ll save this for later! Right now, I need to focus on the game.’

The first possession went to the Siraco Stars. Jack Pine, the starting Boulder, managed to reach the ball first with his magic and passed it to Erin Donton, he starting Streamer. Erin expertly moved the ball downcourt and initiated a flashy yet precise pass to Toby Fields using ‘Wave Flow’. Toby stopped just within the inside of the arc and shot out ‘Fireblast’. The Stars scored two points. The teamwork between the three were so immaculate even Daniel had his jaw agape in awe. However, their opponent, the Hael Halestorm, were no slackers either; they quickly answered back with two points of their own.

Both teams were equally matched, exchanging points with one another at the drop of a hat. The Stars’ quick precision offense and tightly grounded defense clashed perfectly with the Halestorm’s gritty juggernaut offense and critical guerilla defense. The constant back-and-forth between both teams were intense and gripping to say the least. Before long, the buzzer to signal the end of the first quarter rang out. The Stars ended with twenty-four points and the Halestorm ended with twenty-two.

“Alright boys, you did well for the first quarter,” said the coach.

“Of course we did. With me as our starting Igniter, we’ll be winning this game with triple digits!” bragged Toby. He then turned to Daniel and added with a smirk, “Did you see the three-point shots I made? Amazing, right? I practiced hard to use my magic over a large distance! Go ahead, praise my skills!”

“Coach, put me in the second quarter!” requested Daniel, cutting Toby off.

“Oi, I’m talking to you!” shouted Toby.

“Not yet,” replied the coach to Daniel.

“It’ll probably be five, six, no, ten more games before you regain back your position,” smirked Toby. “Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised if the coach wouldn’t put you in the entire season.”

“Hey, Toby, that’s going too far don’t you think?” said Kody with a frown. “Don’t worry about it, Max. I’m pretty sure you’ll regain your position back pretty soon.”

The whistle blew and the second quarter began. Once again, the battle between both teams were quite balanced and intense just like before. The quarter went by quick and the score was now Stars – 55 and Halestorm – 53.

A ten minute intermission took place to give the players some time to cool down before the next half began. The intermission consisted of a small performance by the local ensemble, a short theatrical comedy skit, and a song performed by a well-known bard. Finally, the third quarter began.

Starting this quarter, the Halestorm subbed out their starting Igniter. Like everyone else, Daniel didn’t think too much about the other team’s substitution. But after a minute had passed in the quarter, a very clear change could be observed. Though negligible to the untrained eye of a fan, Daniel, being the trained athlete that he was, along with the entirety of his team, could clearly see that their opponents possessed a strong advantage. As a result of their substitution, the Halestorm were now leading by six points.

“This is bad,” spoke Brock Lane, the Stars’ other Thunderer.

“That Igniter’s ‘Meteor Shot’ is very strong,” added Jerry Ford, the Stars’ other Stormer.

“Our defenders are having a hard time overcoming it!” lamented Lira.

The Halestorm Igniter’s spell was powerful to break through Jack’s defensive earth spells, overcome both Dan Dunham’s (the team’s starting Thunderer) strength and Kody’s speed, and accurately smash through the halo from every position. The Igniter was even confident enough to use the spell from behind the arc and scored five out of seven three-pointers. The gap was still manageable for the Star’s, but the inevitably of it becoming wider and impossible to overcome began to loom over them.

Daniel recalled back to his training with Kody. Despite what many people assume, the elements do not possess any advantage or disadvantage against one another. However, they can be used together to compliment and supplement one another. The best synergy between players result from two or more players combining their skills together. This can help to turn games around or allow for continued dominance on the court. ‘If we want to stop him from scoring, we’ll need to combine our skills together,’ thought Daniel. However, therein lies the problem: he didn’t know how they can possibly achieve this.

That’s when he remembered the strange new ability he recently acquired. He scanned the court and focused primarily on his teammates. ‘Kody has ‘Gale’, Dan has ‘Thunder Step’, and Jack has ‘Stone Pillar’,’ noted Daniel. He didn’t know why, but those skills in particular caught his eye. ‘Could we do something with those skills?’ he wondered to himself. Daniel does not pride himself as a strategist and he wasn’t well known for his playmaking skills in his previous life. He was never big on theory and just played the game intuitively. But the situation that his team now found themselves somehow lit a fire in him that made him want to try to use his mind to overcome this. No, he needed to do this.

“Coach, can you please put me in?” requested Daniel.

“I told you many times before, didn’t I? I’m not putting you in,” said the coach sternly.

“But I figured out a way to beat that player’s magic!” Daniel told him earnestly.

The coach said nothing and Daniel was forced to take that as a sign to remain quiet. Little by little, the gap between both teams grew bigger and bigger. Now, the Halestorm were leading by eighteen points. On the other hand, the Stars couldn’t catch a break at all. The other team were just too quick with their point conversions to give the Stars any chance of catching up!

The third quarter was reaching its last three minutes; all hope seemed lost for the Stars. After the opposing team cashed in another three-pointer, the coach called for a time-out.

“Coach, I’m sorry, but there’s nothing we can do to stop this,” apologized Kody.

“Uwah, we’re going to begin the new season with a loss! How humiliating!” cried Erin.

“That new kid they have out there wasn’t on the team before,” said Toby with a click of his tongue.

“He’s a new rookie,” informed Lira. “As always, I researched the other team to prepare for today’s game and develop the plans that we have been putting into motion, but I never thought that they would be using the new rookie in the first game,” she added regretfully.

“Maybe they tried to keep him hidden from us so that we can’t get any info on him,” suggested Jack.

“A secret weapon,” agreed the coach. “They’ve outsmarted us,” he sighed.

Daniel couldn’t hold it in anymore and shouted, “Coach! I have a plan!”

The entire team turned quiet. “What is it?” asked the coach.

“Let me play!” answered Daniel.

“Huh? What kind of plan is that?!” shouted back Toby furiously.

“Coach, if you let me play, I promise that I can do something about this,” pleaded Daniel. “I think I have a plan that could work, but I need to be out on the court to be sure.”

“You need to be out on the court to be sure? That’s bullshit!” snarled Toby.

“Kody, you told me that the best teamwork happens when players synergize with each other using their skills, right?” said Daniel to his friend. Kody simply answered with a nod of his head. “I think I figured out a way to use a combination of your ‘Gale’ skill, Dan’s ‘Thunder Step’, and Jack’s ‘Stone Pillar’,” he told his friend. “But I need to be out on the court too because I possess the last ingredient we need to make it work,” Daniel concluded. Daniel couldn’t believe the words coming out of his own mouth, but he just felt that it needed to be said and that there was a truth to them that he couldn’t ignore.

“Max, what are you planning?” asked Lira, amazed at what she was hearing.

“Yeah, since when did you become a playmaker?” agreed Kody in surprise. “You were never interested in theory before and the only plays you only ever paid attention to were those that revolved around you.”

Daniel completely agreed with their sentiment. But after coming here into this new world and learning this wonderful new game, he discovered a new part of himself as an athlete and found enjoyment in every aspect of the game besides just the physical play. This was the beginning of a new chapter for him in his quest to become the best athlete in this world.

The coach mulled over the idea for a few seconds when the referee signaled that the timeout will end soon. “Toby, you’re out. Max, you’re in,” finally announced the coach.

“Coach, you can’t be serious!” complained Toby. “If it was the old Max, I would understand. But this guy—can we even trust him?”

The coach turned to the Igniter and simply said, “Trust is earned on the court.” He then turned to Daniel and gestured for him to get on the court with the others. Daniel, meanwhile, couldn’t contain his excitement now that his moment finally arrived. The whistle blew and the third quarter resumed.