Divine Celebrity 80 (Patreon)

However, I had more immediate priorities than revenge. I needed to prevent a fight first. “Huddle up,” I said, gesturing to defensive players that were gathering around, mumbling darkly to show they had noticed the dirty trick they were trying to pull. 

I was glad for Leadership, allowing me to notice their simmering anger, ready to explode. I gestured to two of the players that were looking the angriest even as I shouted an order that was reinforced with its full strength. “Huddle up.” 

They gathered up, though I noticed a few reluctant faces among them even as they gathered. “I don’t want any of you starting a fight, that’s what that asshole wants,” I said, which earned a few suspicious glances from the rest of the team, clearly realizing that it was not in my character to stay away from a fight. 

“Are you sure…” asked Marcus. 

I smirked. “Oh, don’t worry, I have a way to handle it myself, just make sure you be careful while engaging with the new players. We can’t afford to lose any more players.” 

“That applies to you as well, be careful,” he said. 

“Don’t worry about me,” I said with a wave. “Let’s focus on the play. We’re going for a QB sneak, it’s just one yard,” I said. They looked suspicious considering it left me open to an attack. “Don’t worry about it, after that, they would expect me to avoid getting hit.” 

“Are you sure, they looked fired up after your threat?” 

I smirked. “They did, but they are not the ones calling the plays, do they,” I said even as I pointed at Coach Spencer, who was making a gesture from the side to signal their movement, calling pass protection. 

“Oh, I forget they were playing with disadvantage,” Marcus said with a chuckle before we started discussing the plan. 

When we lined up against them, I met the center linebacker, who was watching me angrily even as he lined up toward the right side, where three of our receivers were lined up, ready to take the line. 

When the ball snapped, they all moved away from the line, while Marcus reached to me, and I made a fake hand-off, Agility helping to make it convincing enough to give me half a second. 

Which was all I needed to get the current layout of the defense and identify a corridor to run. Of course, ideally, my offensive line would have been the one to create a predetermined running path for me, but with their inexperience, delaying the four-man rush even for a moment was more than I hoped for. 

I dashed forward, right at one of the hired defensive linemen that were unbalanced by his rush. I appeared next to him. He made a move to shed his current opponent and attack me. 

His fluidity of motion and his success suggested he was used to dealing with much better players. If I tried to run through him, he would have taken me down easily. 

I had no intention of avoiding him. Just as he freed himself from his current opponent, I put my hand on his chest, my arm stiff, and pushed. He was already unbalanced by his own hurry, making it a hopeless affair to resist as he collapsed on his back. 

“Excellent,” I murmured even as I cut to the left, where almost no players stood in my way thanks to Coach Spencer trying to be a genius to intercept my pass. Speed and Agility allowed me to easily leave the linebacker that was tasked to take me down. 

He was fast, but with the distance between us, I didn’t need to push myself to the limit to maintain the distance. 

Of course, the left side was not completely empty, there was still one safety, and one cornerback trying to dash toward me to take me down. 

A hired cornerback that was doing his best to injure me earlier. 

It was time for punishment. He rushed forward, trying to cut my path. I could have used a footwork trick to avoid him, but instead, I trucked forward without slowing down, to a direct collusion course. 

If I had been still working to increase my Precision, I would have avoided and walked out of bounds, happy that I cleared the distance for another first down, and handled the rest while passing.  

Thanks to the number of viewers, I had already reached a point that would allow me to win any skill challenge easily. 

I used that freedom to truck against the unfortunate cornerback with my full strength, enough to send him flying. Yet, I didn’t even pause as I rushed forward, enjoying the spectators going crazy with excitement at the spectacular play. 

The poor safety froze for a moment as he saw the fate of the other player, and I passed him easily, though his concern was unfounded. I had no intention of actually injuring our players, just the guys that were responsible for actually attacking us. 

Even as I run toward the end zone, I slowed down slightly, enough to let the angry linebacker catch up with me. He did his best to slam against me from behind, using his helmet to directly hit my spine. 

I frowned even as I shifted my weight, realizing the deliberate nature of his move, trying to actually injure me badly enough to turn me into a paraplegic if I didn’t shift my body at the last moment. 

Such a move deserved a dirty response, I decided even as I tapped into the intent that was growing, and pushed some of it to my hand, just like I did against the black shadows that attacked me. 

Then, I smashed it down right onto his shoulder, feeling his shoulder shattering under my hit. Interestingly, despite that, the pads actually survived, showing that Intent didn’t just enhance my strength, and worked as some kind of penetrative force. 

Impressive, I thought even as I watched him collapse on the same shoulder, glad that he was rolling badly, because it created a convenient excuse for the broken bones. I ignored him as I covered the rest of the distance, scoring a touchdown. 

The medical team was the first one to rush the guy, and started checking him, which allowed a break. Three of the players gathered around him, sending me looks that would kill me if they had something like my intent, while the unfortunate cornerback was also stumbling toward the medical tent. 

Good riddance. 

“Let’s practice some passing while they have fun,” I said to my team even as I moved to the center of the field. “I need three targets at the endzone,” I said as I pointed to one of them, then pointed to the other end of the field, which didn’t have a crowd of the medical team. 

After their previous attempt to injure me, the unlucky linebacker didn’t exactly gain too much sympathy from our side — or even from the rest of the practice squad, clearly uncomfortable with things escalating to such a degree.

Coach Spencer, on the other hand, rushed toward the collapsed man, showing that he was very much concerned with his welfare. 

I ignored them as I ordered my receivers to line up, and gave them simple routes to complete. “What’s the sequence?” Marcus asked. 

“What sequence,” I countered with a smirk. “I want you to move simultaneously, without skipping even a beat,” I said. “Now, you have five seconds. Let’s give the audience something to watch while proving offense has the easier job.” 

It was not a fair statement, but while trying to boost the morale of the defensive squad that lost its coordinator and most critical members, I wasn’t particularly concerned with fairness against them. 

Instead, I raised my hand up, and when I brought it down, they rushed forward. One of the players was passing the ball to me, and my hands flashed, distributing each ball to my target. 

Each landing accurately, right where I wanted, a task that I could never succeed without the most recent boost. It wasn’t as entertaining for the audience as a full-blown match, but it was still sufficiently entertaining enough to catch their attention more than the medical teams on the other side of the field. 

And, with that, more intent. 

[Precision V, acquired]

Even as I reached the System’s current limit, I didn’t stop. First, more intent was always useful. 

Second, there was a high challenge Coach Spencer would stop the challenge after the injury, and I wanted to drive the skill difference between me and Kevin as much as possible. 

“Do you want to join the fun, Kevin,” I shouted at the rich boy who was watching us with a frown on his face, accompanied by anger and despair in equal amounts. The expression of the starter was not too different, realizing that, with the abilities I was displaying, it wasn’t just Kevin that was at risk.  

What really amused me was, however, the expression of the rest of the team. There was no doubt about the bad blood between us, and most of them had turned soft under Coach Spencer’s coddling. 

However, soft was a relative term when it came to football players. They still worked hard, and went through the pain. There were two reasons for that. They either wanted to win, or they were in for personal glory. 

In either case, a good Quarterback was essential. Which put them in a complicated situation as they watched me rain passes, the balls flying with a speed that their starter could never match. 

Promising them glory for mutiny. 

I was curious how long it would take for the first one to raise that question. Pity that was not to be learned, as I watched Coach Spencer rush toward us with a stormy expression. 

“It’s an order, don’t retaliate no matter what happens,” I said as I looked at the defense. “Actually disperse, and watch how I solve our coaching problem,” I added, and they dispersed. 

Leaving me with a big smirk.