Divine Celebrity 79 (Patreon)

The crowd was cheering loudly as we walked onto the field, which Coach Spencer didn’t miss. Clearly, the audience was aware of who was responsible for our victory against our rivals, and greeted us. 

Though, admittedly, I owed quite a bit to Megan as well, who was working hard to hype the challenge. I felt Intent flooding into my soul once more. Not as intense as the victory we earned, but intense nonetheless. 

Pity, it wasn’t enough to improve my Precision more. 

I examined the layout in front of me as we took our positions, easily recognizing it as one of our team’s standard zone defenses close range, the ones that were used against a team when a short pass was expected. 

It was a smart decision. After all, it was just the first play, and they expected me to start safely. A mistake I was more than happy to punish even as I signaled my fastest receiver to run a go route, ready to launch. 

However, just as the center snapped the ball to my hand, I noticed an interesting detail. Two of the cornerbacks, both new ones, took a step forward, changing their position. 

It was a move that could be easily written off as a mistake of a newbie, but their movement was simply too well-timed for that to be the case. Combined with my earlier suspicions, I decided to make a last-minute adjustment, and gestured for Marcus to run wide with my hand behind me, while using one hand to grip the ball. 

And, retreated without looking up, which turned out to be a smart decision. Both the new linebacker and the two cornerbacks joined the rush, creating a dangerous zero blitz as they attacked by seven people. 

A dangerous gambit, one that I would have punished greatly if my receivers hadn’t been caught flat-footed by the move as the new players burst into action with a speed that they didn’t reveal. 

Which cost me an opportunity for a spectacular pass. 

The cornerbacks were fast as they attacked from both sides, ready to take me down, their smiles predatory. Marcus turned toward me, clearly trying to take the initiative to block one of them. 

I used one of the defensive signals I used when I was playing the mike, asking him to follow the free receiver since we didn’t have a full range of communication. Luckily, he was smart enough to get the message, and continued running to the left. 

That communication cost me only a fraction of a second, but under the circumstances, it was a precious fraction. 

My offensive line was too inexperienced to handle a rush like that, and both cornerbacks reached me without the slightest impediment, their matching smiles making them think that they were about to deliver their first sack. 

And, they would have been right if they had been fighting against an ordinary quarterback, but I was a linebacker who happened to be holding the ball. I rushed toward my right, and slammed against the one that was attacking from that with my full strength. 

There was a great difference between getting punched, and getting punched while not expecting it. It was similar in tackling. The cornerback attacking from the right was clearly skilled, and he was using a perfect posture, his body lowered and his back tense. 

Unfortunately for him, he was still a cornerback, optimized more for speed than power. Trying to take me down was a difficult affair even before the traits I had received. With those, he was like a child trying to take down an adult. 

Pity I didn’t have the luxury to watch his flying figure, not with my offensive line collapsed in confusion, and the linebacker slipped through the mess, and was just a step away. 

Taking him down was not impossible, but taking him down quickly was harder, especially since all he needed to do was to hang on my body for a second before reinforcements arrived. 

Instead, I caught his gaze, and flicked my wrist. 

The ball flew right above the cornerback, who was too committed to rush to try to bat down the pass, and right at the hands of Marcus. He was not a receiver, but as a cornerback, they practiced catching the ball enough, especially uncontested. 

With the blitz, he had no defender assigned to him. 

Pity I wasn’t able to watch him fly for long, not when the linebacker still hit me with his full speed. I stumbled back even as the stadium cheered, but I didn’t fall. The linebacker looked annoyed. 

“You need to hit harder, little man,” I said with a smirk, once again using the full benefit of the taunt. Yet, as he growled, I had the opportunity to examine his face, and he realized he was a bit older than I expected. 

He growled before he twisted, while I went toward the point they took down Marcus — a beautiful twenty-five-yard gain before safety managed to catch up —  and gestured the team to huddle.

“Sorry, captain,” started one from the offensive line. “We failed you.” 

“Nonsense, you did your best, and it’s just the first attempt. You’ll get used to it,” I said, not needing the warning of the Leadership trait to know how to respond. “But be careful of the unknown players.” 

“Yeah, those are not normal. Those linemen are almost as strong as Thad,” said one of them.

 “Does anyone recognize them, maybe from a college near us,” said Marcus. 

The rest shook their head. I had a suspicion, especially considering their age, but I kept my mouth shut, not wanting to distract them even further. “Just treat them as star players for now, like you would Carter and Thad,” I recommended them instead. “Now, we don’t have too much time to waste. Gun formation.” 

They spread according to my order, and we snapped. 

Learning from their earlier mistake, the defense only rushed forward with three, and the rest pulled back, crowding the receivers. 

A smart move, especially since even with the three rushings, my offensive line was showing signs of crumbling, too used to being the ones that pushed recklessly. 

Unfortunately for them, I wasn’t just limited to flinging passes from the center. “Excellent,” I murmured even as the left side collapsed, and I rolled toward the right, the ball on my right hand. 

I was tempted to rush through the right, when I noticed one of my receivers cut back. It was not something we had discussed before, but he was not being defended by the hired players. 

One of the linebackers got in the way, and forced me to throw with a speed that justified the name of bullet pass. The linebacker was too late to react to the ball that flew in front of him. 

Pity my receiver was too slow as well, as it bounced off his hands. 

Incomplete.

The team gathered for another huddle. “Nice cut,” I said even as the rest of the team was looking at him angrily. “That’s the type of initiative I expect from you guys, just take sharp cuts if you need to,” I said. 

“But wouldn’t it make you miss us,” he asked, still looking ashamed of his mistake. 

“Don’t worry about it,” I said. With Pattern Recognition, I was confident that I would be able to recognize their movement in time. It was still risky, but it was inevitable from playing a disadvantaged position. 

“I still can’t believe that asshole Spencer is cheating this badly,” another player murmured. 

“Of course they do,” I answered with a shrug. “What do you expect from a craven idiot whose only benefit is to be born rich.” 

“Oh, captain, please tell us how you really feel,” he said while the rest of the team started chuckling. 

“Enough talking, repeat the earlier tactic, and split whenever you see a good route. Let’s confuse them,” I said. 

We took our positions once again, and I gestured for them to attack. This time, I received another blitz, but this time one of the linemen attacked from left — what would have been my blind side if it wasn’t for my supernatural awareness— doubling together with the strong linebacker to easily bypass the line. 

I managed to throw the ball, which landed in the hands of my receiver for a six-yard gain, but in exchange. They were far enough to stop, but didn’t, slamming down on me together. 

In a game, it would have received a penalty at a minimum, maybe even an ejection penalty, but since the referee was from Coach Spencer’s team, the audience booing was my consolation prize. 

Or, it would have been, if it didn’t come together with a great flood of intent, enough to give me a great reward. 

[Precision III, acquired]

[Precision IV, acquired]

I pushed myself up to my feet, Recovery helping me to suppress the pain of being hit by two hulking men. Yet, as I managed to push myself to my feet and met with their matching smirks, I realized that they weren’t just trying to hurt me. 

They were trying to injure me. 

It seemed that I had underestimated the fragility of Spencer’s ego even now. The match reached an interesting point. 

I turned to the hired guns, curious about where they had come from. “Do that again, and I break your legs,” I said even as I looked at them with a vicious grin, letting the full brunt of Intimidation lash out. 

After all, it was only fair that I warned before retaliating…