136 You Still Need to Relax Somehow (2/2)

The two of us then walked up to the red side of the air hockey table and each grabbed a striker. Then, Noah scanned his phone at the scanner to pay for the match in order for the machine to release the puck onto the table.

”We'll start,” Noah said as he reached forward for the puck and brought it closer to their side of the table.”

”Remember it's just a game!” Irina called out as she stood by the long side of the table with Muria and Luna standing next to her as they spectated.

”I know,” Loyd chuckled and acknowledged her. However, his voice was oddly serious. ”I hope you still got it in you, Alevian,” he smiled towards me. ”Don't you dare hold back, you know?”

”I might need to warm up a bit,” I sighed and cracked my knuckles, ”but I should be back at full strength.”

With a swift motion, Noah struck the black puck with his striker, hitting it hard with great strength in his movement, and pushing the puck at a fast speed towards the slit at our end of the table that was the goal. It was a fast moving puck that was at a speed that I believe was extremely above what the average player would be able to achieve. It is considered extremely hard to stop, almost a near score against ordinary players. However, I'm not worried and neither was Loyd. Who said that we're ordinary?

”Ha!” Loyd called out as he quickly brought his striker over to the predicted path of the puck at inhuman speed, blocking the puck and causing it to rebound at an angle and hitting against the sides of the table in a zigzag motion back towards the other side until it quickly shot into the goal.

”H-how?” Noah exclaimed with bewildered eyes. He looked down at the slot where the puck was to be retrieved after a score and then back up at the two of us with great shock in his widened eyes. Beside him, Zaksus had a similar reaction, but it was a bit more contained.

”I forgot to tell you,” Loyd chuckled and said. ”The two of us used to dominate the local arcade at where we used to live.”

”That's a few years ago though,” I sighed. ”It looks like you're not as fast as before.”

”I'm a bit rusty too, you know?” Loyd laughed.

”Hmhmhm,” Zaksus laughed as he retrieved the puck and placed it back down on the white, smooth air hockey table. ”I expected at least that from you. Now it's our turn.”

Then with a quick and powerful motion of his arms, he smashed the puck hard on its side with the striker, causing it to bounce back and forth rapidly against the sides of the air hockey table. The odd thing about it was that it moved side to side with no signs of it ever moving forward of back. Then, that was when I noticed what he was after. He wanted to make us distracted by the rapid movement of the puck as it moved side to side and he'll strike when we least expect it, pushing the puck either at an angle or directly at the goal.

”No!” Loyd cried as both of us were too late to react to the rapid movement of the puck as it flew right by our defense and into the goal.

”Too naive,” Zaksus laughed. ”You really think we're that weak?”

”You might not be,” Noah softly mumbled with an awkward expression on his face.

I should've known. Zaksus is the ace player on the basketball team, the rising star in the basketball world. Therefore, he has great athleticism, strength, and reaction speed. Therefore, he will definitely be extremely good at this game.

I let out a sigh and shook my head.

Looks like it won't be as easy as we thought it'll be.