Divine Celebrity 144 (Patreon)

Admittedly, as I let the team take the field, I felt more excitement than fear. Not just for the potential Intent gain — which was always a welcome side benefit — but also the challenge of facing such a competent opponent during a match. 

For all the great challenges the opponent presented, it was still a five-man game, and I had my own unique advantages. 

And, more importantly, I had the animosity between Paul and Arthur, the reason I let the situation collapse, as I needed Arthur to have that inglamarus position. 

The play I was pulling, at least on the surface, was an isolation play, one that allowed Arthur to attack from the right side while the rest of the team pulled to the left easily. However, Paul locked him badly, not even allowing a gap to receive a pass.

I could see the amused smirk of the opposing coach, thinking that my tactics were collapsing as I panicked under overwhelming skill. 

Unfortunately for him, that wasn’t the case. Under my command aura, the other four passed the ball rapidly, before letting Marcus push forward for an easy layup, giving us some score. 

“Petty trick,” Paul growled as he rushed forward, easily bypassing both Marcus and Arthur despite their double-team attempt, responding in kind. 

And, just like that, the game turned into a weird back and forth, our offense delivering a smooth assault every time, scoring an easy bucket most of the time, and rebounding on the occasions that they missed. Paul stayed locked on Arthur, more than happy to keep him from scoring. 

In response, Paul ignored his teammates as he relied on his supernatural talents and rushed forward recklessly, scoring with an eerie efficiency, and, when the half came to an end, the score was close. 

41-47. 

A six-point difference shouldn’t have been good news, but it was.  Especially since I could see the intense dissatisfaction on the faces of their players. 

Starting at the moment they checked their phone. 

I wasn’t exactly wasting time while commanding a losing match. I used the bot accounts I created to trigger an extensive online argument, with a lot of fake posts insulting the starter players for being useless. After all, it had been a while since they scored a point, and their defensive performance wasn’t great either. 

A few of them were already arguing with their coach, and that was without me using any kind of magical trick. With their struggle turning into a mess, I turned my attention to the next challenge … and from a distance, focused on the runes underneath Paul’s shoes. 

I felt that, as long as I focused on it for a minute, I could destroy the rune completely, but that was not my aim. Instead, I targeted some of the most fragile parts, limiting myself to the fraying edges of it, one that would look like natural decay. 

With the command aura still strong over them, my team didn’t bother with some nonsense argument, and instead focused on the tactics I was drawing. 

The second half started with their point, but this time, I noted that Paul decided to ignore Arthur and defend the person who had the ball in hand, probably a concession the coach managed to earn as he wanted to open the gap. Unfortunately for him, his sneaky attack was impossible to connect under my watchful eyes, and they passed the ball quickly twice…

Which ended on Arthur’s hand as he positioned himself at the three-point line, scoring one for us before the defense could even react.  

44-47. 

“It seems that you’re quite slow, this time, Paul,” Arthur said mockingly. 

“You’re lucky that the rest of my team is completely useless,” Paul countered, too arrogant to care about the attitude of the rest of his team. This was a great mistake, as the others were already annoyed with all the posts about their uselessness, and the insult wasn’t exactly helpful.

So, when they passed the ball, they deliberately ignored Paul as they passed the ball among themselves. Not one to miss such an opportunity, I let the players move in a way that gave them an easy look, allowing them to score an easy layup. 

The next ball, the same pattern repeated. Paul tried to steal the ball, but Arthur was already positioned, and scored a smooth dunk in response, once again mocking Paul.  

“Pass the ball!” Paul shouted, but his team ignored him once more, once again scoring … which was the death of any cooperation hope they had. 

Our attack happened quite smoothly, but when they put the ball into the game, they certainly weren’t expecting Paul to actually cut and steal the ball. 

Or, more accurately, try to steal, as just as he was about to grab the ball, I intervened with a little telekinetic push, and the ball went out of bounds. 

“What the hell are you doing, you arrogant bastard,” their point guard shouted at Paul, shocked at his recklessness. Certainly humiliating, especially as they argued, we put the ball into the game and scored a quick three-point. 

“That doesn’t count,” the coach argued. 

“Nonsense, you didn’t call for a timeout. It’s not my problem that you can’t control your players,” I answered mockingly, watching as his face turned purple. 

The next move of their players, once again passing the ball while Paul tried to intercept, hardly helped his mood. Worse for him, I let Paul intercept before he rushed forward and scored … which should have been good news for him. 

Instead, it further broke down their team unity. 

“Come on, guys, go and show them basketball is a team game,” I shouted, followed by some nonsense numbers, giving me the impression that I was controlling the game with pre-arranged codes rather than mental commands. 

Soon, even the semblance of control broke down, their horrible defense allowing us to score easily. Worse for them, this time, we were even able to stop Paul as he tried to score. 

It required triple-teaming him, which was a tactic that should have never worked as it left most of the team free to rush, but as their relationship dissolved into enmity, Paul chose to force an absurdly difficult three-pointer rather than passing it. 

We grabbed the rebound, scoring an easy fast-break. 

And, just like that, their offense split into two. Whenever the starters attacked, Paul deliberately stayed back, not even bothering to help them, but insulting them afterward, and the same thing also happened during Paul’s attacks. 

Soon, the score reversed quite badly. 

67-54

The coach tried to use his timeouts to instill some kind of control, but it soon turned into a shouting match between him and his players. I expected that to be the end of the spectacle … but then, when the starters passed the ball among each other and ignored Paul again, Paul intervened…

By slamming the player hard with a shoulder tackle, sending him sliding down while he grabbed the ball. 

Before he could start his offense, however, another player rushed him from the back. Paul, thanks to his enhanced abilities, turned and punched him … which would have ended in a very painful manner if I hadn’t already weakened his strength rune. 

Even with that, he had the decisive advantage as the starters attacked him. My team looked confused, but I just gestured for them to walk toward me, and we started watching the match. 

Amusingly, while I wasn’t the one fighting, I still sensed the intense flow of intent, refilling my pool once more, which I channeled to my suspiciously competent pet to increase his progress. 

[Black Tortoise (1. - %35)]

Watching as the coach rushed among his players, trying to intervene, was amusing. 

Amusingly, the fight came to a ridiculous end. In the chaos, one of the players accidentally stepped on the back of Paul’s shoe, and made it slip out of his feet. 

Which meant an immediate drop in his fighting capability … followed by a huge beating. When the players finally stopped, I walked to the sweaty coach. 

“I’m enlightened coach, marvelous ability to control your players. I’m sure you’ll have an excellent talk with Coach Juana,” I said. 

“I … what do you mean?” he tried to say, but I just pointed at the camera, reminding him that everything had been recorded. He blanched, quick to realize that, while being defeated was bad enough, as a coach, the disgraceful behavior of his team was hard to explain. 

Especially with the extreme beating his star recruit received. 

“Why didn’t you help?” He asked. 

“Oh, coach, you can’t be serious. I’m just an upstart player, how can I know it’s not a genius training regime of yours,” I said, loud enough to be picked by the phone cameras, and left. 

After the disgraceful show they put on, there was no need to finish the game.