81 What You Didnt Take Into Accoun (1/2)
”He's good.” Coach Ardiente rested his elbows on his knees and muttered. ”Perfect skills, keen eye, excellent physical abilities, no hesitation on exploiting his opponent's weak points, and what more, performing it instinctively than with thinking. He's the epitome of an athlete. Plus, that level-headed execution and confidence of his own actions is nothing but commendable.”
From Coach Ardiente's standpoint, and with the usage of his Ability he can perceive everything within the battlefield. It was a magnificent display of skill. ”Perfection…”
He can't help admire Hayden's Ultra Instinct-like plays. He was also sure that Hayden wasn't using his Ability as a Level 3 wielder's essence energy sensing allows one to sense such things.
”He's good, huh?” Sophia's lips inched upwards, a rare sight.
”Incredibly so.” Coach Ardiente nodded his head in approval. ”He's going to be a vital weapon for a win in the Annual Youth Pride. Plus, the players who auditioned are superb as well. This is going to be the year Philippines win in the Annual Youth Pride basketball.”
”Don't forget the goal of our boss.” Sophia muttered something unexpected. ”We have to find out more of Hayden's interests and whether he's fit for our Pangkat Anino.”
”Yeah, yeah, I know.” Coach Ardiente rolled his eyes. He was certain that Hayden fit their boss' criterion, or else, why would he send two people to look out for Hayden? Isn't that kind of counterproductive? Additionally, there were three more people who protected Hayden in the shadows. Powerful members to boot.
Back to the game. The five people on the former Annual Youth Pride team were all stunned of Hayden's show of feat.
With the ball in their possession, Gabriel threw the ball to John. Gabriel shouted, ”We can still turn this around, guys. Guard him.”
Experiencing the four-man block, Hayden wouldn't stand around and let them do their plan anymore. He twisted and turned, eluding Gabriel, Jack, Christian, and Caleb without exerting much effort.
Catching up to John, Hayden snatched the ball in an instant and rapidly dribbled to the other side of the court. He smoothly passed the blockers with his superb and high-pace dribbling, ultimately ankle-breaking Gabriel and pulling off a flawless three-pointer.
Looking down at Gabriel, Hayden expressionlessly stated, ”I told you. You didn't take into account something. That something is that I won't fall for the same trick twice.”
Gabriel gaped at Hayden, developing a sense of weakness in front of Hayden's absolute strength. He now fathomed that strategies can only accomplish so much, and in front of a monster, tactics were useless.
The spirit of the former Annual Youth Pride team was utterly crushed by Hayden's one-person display of skill.
It was one of the flashiest highlights of Hayden's basketball career that made Gabriel eager to fight Hayden. Unfortunately for Gabriel, Hayden didn't employ that for his team at all, overwhelming his team merely with his one-man army capabilities.
What's worse was that this time, Hayden still didn't exercise that tactic when faced with the best of last year's high school basketball team. Instead, Hayden dished out a more advanced level of play and physical prowess.
It was the ultimate slap in the face for Gabriel and it goes to show that sometimes, the gap between true talent and the talentless cannot be unabridged by hard work.
The rest of the game was plainly Hayden doing all these cool stunts. If not for Sophia shouting 'fighting' every time and using her Ability to encourage the Annual Youth Pride team, their wills would have taken a much greater blow.
Seven minutes in the game, the Annual Youth Pride team scored a negligible 10 points while Hayden already scored over 70 points over them. Nobody could stop Hayden's momentum at all.
”This guy's ruthless…” Sophia's impassive expression didn't change in spite of her tone being dry. ”There's just no predicting what he's going to do with that ball.”
”Exactly.” Coach Ardiente smiled. ”Have you ever seen a match of streetball?”
”No.” Sophia shook her head.
”Streetball is a lot more improvisational and has a lot more style.” Coach Ardiente talked as he observed Hayden's outstanding maneuvers. ”You'd think that this is detrimental, but as it is more spontaneous and is a showcase of raw individual talent, it makes a player's handling more unpredictable. With the development of basketball over time, more and more streetball players entered the pro scene. You can see a lot of streetball players in the field of basketball who displays such flamboyant moves that easily makes it into the highlights of a game.”
Coach Ardiente paused for a bit and followed Hayden with his eyes, who proved Coach Ardiente's point as Hayden dribbled the ball behind his back and twisted to the right as a feint then quickly twisted again to the left to jump and do a fade away shot.
”Therefore, in modern basketball leagues, learning how to dribble ala-streetball style is a vital requirement if you hope to survive.” Coach Ardiente continued. ”Streetball handling is tremendously different to the earlier versions of handling a basketball and is quite damaging to a team if you don't control your urge to 'show off' and forgetting to pass the ball to your teammates. This is usually the downfall of a player, their own arrogance. In front of us is someone who has the right to be that arrogant. The one-man army and the 'Emperor of the Court.'”
Coach Ardiente and Sophia watched Hayden guard John, who hasn't lost hope yet and was looking for an opportunity to bypass Hayden using his significantly smaller height.
Moving, John actually did avoid Hayden by the usage of his fast dribbling. Or that's what he thought in the least.
A second after he was behind Hayden, the missing ball in his hand registered synchronic to when the sound of dribbling entered his ears.
In horror, John looked back and saw Hayden dribbling absurdly fast. Subsequent to outplaying Gabriel, Christian, and Caleb, Hayden was faced against Jack.
Stepping into the free throw line, Hayden was going to execute a dunk. Propelling himself up and shouting, Jack was sure that he could block Hayden this time. Witnessing this, the rest of the eyes of the members of his team lit up.
That was when Hayden pulled off an absurdly inhuman trick by putting his left hand in front of the ball, pulling it back, ducking a little mid-air, and when he was behind the ring, shot the ball into the basketball hoop with his right hand prior to landing.
The onlookers who were watching with bated breaths couldn't believe what they saw, including Daniel. ”Holy crap… How much did this guy secretly absorb knowledge from anime and professional basketball and secretly practice?”
From his experience, Hayden would always prolong his stay in here in the basketball court, doing some mind-numbingly hardcore practice. One time, Daniel caught Hayden shooting from all parts of the court and at differing heights on each.
When he inquired why Hayden was doing that, Hayden responded with a ridiculous yet sensible answer, which was, ”Well, I'm hammering into my muscle memory how much strength and force to use whenever I shoot. With my Ability, it's possible, backed by my forceful acquisition of perfect pitch. It's simply that with extra steps.”
People might think that Hayden was absolutely lucky when it came to his overpowered Ability, and he was. Be that as it may, without the inordinate amounts of effort that Hayden put in and the out of this world notions he came up with, no one can plausibly copy his feats.
In truth, even Hayden himself didn't grasp how much effort he's put into things. Which is one of the reason Daniel admired Hayden highly. Such a hard-working stud? If anybody else from Puting Araw fathomed how much effort Hayden put in into every practice, they'd remove their abhorrent gazes. Alas, Hayden forbid Daniel from defending his reputation.
”Is he… Presently utilizing his… You know?” Courtney popped Daniel's daze.
”Much as I'd like to say yes, he's not.” Daniel breathed out heavily. ”He's good, huh?”
Courtney was astounded of this. For the umpteenth time, what kind of a monstrous existence was Hayden?
Thereafter, the last few minutes was solely Hayden showing off, demolishing the former Annual Youth Pride team with his own two hands. It was an impressive show for the spectators.
By the time the ten minutes was up, Hayden scored over a hundred points by himself and without any of his teammates touching the ball for more than a second.
Out of the blue, Coach Ardiente stood up and walked towards Hayden's coach under the watchful gaze of Hayden.
”I've seen enough.” Coach Ardiente spoke. ”Clearly, Hayden is a prodigal athlete that would do well in the Annual Youth Pride. I'll see him next Monday at the training camp.”
”Yes, sir.” Hayden's coach bowed respectfully. Clapping loudly, he shouted, ”Okay, show's over. I ask the audience to exit the premises.”
With a groan, the crowd dispersed, with those who recorded the fight, they mistook this match as a training for Hayden and didn't recognize Coach Ardiente. Consequently, they uploaded the video of Hayden under the video of 'Five people against the 'Emperor of the Court' as training.'
As for the women who watched, they fangirled on Hayden's apparently manly display of athletic prowess. Phrases such as 'what a heartthrob!' and 'how attractive!' can be heard all around.
Meanwhile, Daniel led Courtney to sit on a bench not far from the entrance of the gymnasium. ”For the last time, don't ever mess with that guy. He's too vengeful. He might really kill you. I'm not joking.”
”He-he'll kill me?” Courtney stammered, evidently terrified of Daniel's warning. ”I-isn't that way too much?”
”Oh, no.” Daniel shook his head. ”That guy is a heavily principled person. As long as you stay out of his way, he won't touch you at all. Howbeit, if you ever so slightly stay out of line, he won't hesitate to kill you, or at least beat you up. Be thankful that he nipped your plan in the bud, otherwise, you'd be buried six feet underneath the earth and won't be able to enjoy your life as a wielder.”
”He's that vengeful?” Courtney smiled wryly. Now, she was genuinely relieved that she didn't get the chance to 'seduce' Hayden.