Divine Celebrity 69 (Patreon)

It took everything I had to maintain that smile. “So what,” I said. 

That answer didn’t come from any of the traits, but from the core of my vindictive personality. 

Never show an enemy that their attack hurt. 

And that attack hurt immensely. Coach Bill quitting was a literal disaster. No wonder the rest of the players were just murmuring like headless chickens. 

It was even worse for me. Not because cared much about his assistance — as while he was an excellent coach, I could easily do without him with my cheats. 

Yet, that assumed I would still be in the team, which, considering my tumultuous relationship with the offensive team, and Coach Spencer’s ridiculous coddling attitude toward them, was not very likely. 

“And what if I tell you that Coach took all the good players with him, leaving only rabble behind. No more Thad or Carter to clean up your messes. And seeing you’re still here, he clearly didn’t pick you.”  

“Oh, I’m shaking in my boots,” I answered, this time not even needing to fake my vicious smile. 

I liked Thad as a friend, and playing with Carter was challenging in a fun way, but their absence certainly worked to my benefit. 

Without them to hold the fort, the defense without Coach Bill’s careful command would turn into a sieve, turning into an even worse disaster than the offense. 

Therefore forcing Coach Spencer to play me. But, I knew for a fact that he wouldn’t do it for the next game. 

And, that meant that I had a choice in front of me. Either let them kick me out of the team silently, or turn that into a spectacle. 

With intent at stake, there was no question about what needed to be done. I brought my hand to my back, looking like I was scratching while I gave the signal to Megan. 

The live stream was turned on, which I didn’t need to check my phone to know, because I felt the flow of Intent getting much stronger. 

Almost immediately as well, showing Megan had made the necessary preparations beforehand if that many people immediately started watching. My guess was, she made some kind of post about a potentially amazing show. 

I had to admit, amazing initiative. Maybe I needed to find a way to reward her without boosting her already dangerous ego any further. 

While I was busy processing the flow, Kevin was busy stammering at the sudden reversal, clearly not expecting the discussion to turn that way. 

Kevin’s frustration at his words failing to register was rather amazing, earning more than a few chuckles from the defensive players, and some angry glares from the offense, not enjoying their triumphant move ruined. 

“Let’s see how you would enjoy when Coach Spencer kicks you out of the team,” he declared after a moment, his expression vindictive. 

Too bad for him that he gave me the opening I needed to bring the discussion to a new place. “So, you’re saying that, Coach Spencer is unprofessional enough to kick his best player off the team just because little Kevin got his feelings hurt after losing his girlfriend.” I chuckled. “Is he that unprofessional?” 

To his credit, not all players were as idiotic enough as Kevin, and some of them had alert expressions on their faces, realizing that my long-winded phrasing was weird enough to be suspicious. 

“Of course, he would. That manchild is too busy squandering his family money to actually work, and he’s too busy reliving his glory days,” Kevin said. “He’ll do anything we ask.” 

“Zip it,” Arnold warned Kevin as he looked back, finally realizing the setup. 

Too bad that he was too late. Kevin was already distracted ad angry as his grand reveal didn’t have the desired impact on his ‘rival’. All I need was to push him a bit more. 

Luckily, Taunt made it much easier. 

“Then tell him to kick me out. It’ll give me more time to seduce your current girlfriend as well,” I said with a smirk. “Do you think I can convince her to dress as a chess queen as well, just to show you have lost another girlfriend to a nerd?” 

That managed to earn an explosive cry from Kevin, and he charged forward, his teammates reacting a second too late to stop him. 

His punch was not half bad, a short jab by his left hand, showing that he had taken at least a few boxing lessons, and it hit my face, giving me a bloody lip. 

Unfortunately for him, I had been punched much harder when I was a literal child, and it would have barely registered even without all my traits reducing the impact even more. 

I didn’t react, which left Kevin confused as he dropped his fist down a bit rather than following up with a straight. He clearly expected me to dodge rather than take it to my face without reacting. 

And he wasn’t the only one that reacted in surprise. The two offensive linemen that rushed forward to pull back Kevin stilled in shock, and so did the defensive players moving forward to intervene.  

“Ouch,” I said, my voice as flat as I could manage. Then, I let my lips widen, which allowed the blood to spill down more. I could have used Intimidation to push him away. Instead, I used Taunt. 

“Megan spanks harder,” I said, which was all that was needed to enflame his anger. 

Just like that, another punch arrived, this time a right hook. Though, unlike the jab, I didn’t let that one hit, instead ducking underneath and slamming my shoulder to his chest, sending him away stumbling. 

My target, the large center moving forward, acted to separate us. 

“You’re ganging up on me. So be it,” I shouted, more to the sake of the live stream than theirs even as I charged forward with a hook of my own, slamming the center of his chest, right at his diaphragm. Unlike Kevin, I had no problem putting the necessary strength behind a punch to take someone down. 

Without the incredible boost of Strength, even with a sucker punch, I couldn’t take down the giant center easily, which was about a hundred fifty pounds on me. Yet, with that, I actually had to hold back to not actually break a rib. 

He went down wheezing, a shocked expression on his face, out of the fight for more than half a minute. 

Which might as well be an eternity as far as the fights were concerned. 

The other lineman that was coming to separate me and Kevin was quick to charge me, to tackle me down. I dodged, deliberately toward one of the receivers, hotheaded enough to react to my presence. 

But his punch was decidedly lighter than a lineman. 

He attacked from behind — giving an excellent view for the live stream about a cowardly ambush — and I stumbled forward. 

Then, the rest of the defense joined the fray, and mayhem exploded. 

One of the fun things about such chaotic mayhem, it was really hard for anyone to get injured, because people lacked space to put proper strength behind their punches, turning that into a chaotic fight, but little chance to cause actual harm — at least, nothing a few days of bed rest wouldn’t cure.

“I’ll kill you,” Kevin shouted angrily as he managed to right himself as he tried to cut through the crowd, trying to reach me, but unable to cut through the crowd as I moved on the front line, keeping the fight balanced. 

It was an interesting feeling, I thought as I waved through the crowd, applying the benefits of both my physical traits, and the mental ones like Pattern Recognition and Leadership to make sure the fight continued relatively evenly despite the numerical disparity — and the little metal rod in my fist giving me the extra edge I needed occasionally, especially when delivering body punches to the side. 

And, it was working for more than just keeping the fight balanced. The showier I acted, the more intent I received. Not as much as the match, but still considerable enough that I could divert a significant portion to the System rather than letting my guide devour it for recovery. 

Especially if it could trigger some new Traits. 

“That’s enough, disperse,” shouted a voice through a megaphone, one that clearly didn’t belong to a student. A glimpse showed that several security guards had already arrived. 

A shockingly quick response, especially from a security team famous for their laziness. Even more amusingly, they stood at the side, just shouting with their megaphones, rather than intervening. 

It was not very effective, but the fight slowly petered out during the next few seconds, and the groups split.

Altogether, a memorable way to get kicked out of the team.