Chapter 128: Bad News

"And the decoy strategy?" he asked, trying to shift their attention away from their diehard fan debate.

"It's a very rarely used tactic," Lim said before adding, "in this one, the decoys are used as the main line of attack. Using their exceptional ability to fool others, they would make it literally impossible for the other team to discover the ace."

"But isn't this all the game is about?" Jim asked in doubt.

"Indeed true," Rick said, "but you can consider this tactic to have another level of play for decoys," he pointed to the shapeshifters here before adding, "they had to play as fast as you are, move exactly like you do, and that won't happen until they got the same gears as you."

"Wow," Jim muttered, "this would… cost a fortune!"

"Without doubt," Roo said, "that's why not many teams choose to do it. and also there is another thing that needs to be done… they need to live all day long with you."

"For what?" Jim was surprised by this.

"To mimic your subtle moves and habits of course," Roo said, "It's a very complicated tactic that requires real discipline and long time planning plus a lot of fortune… it's hard, very rare to see on the field."

"I can totally guess the reason," Jim said, "and the ace is to have a very amazing ace like me, right?"

"Who said you are amazing?" Lim said while others laughed at Jim's expression.

"Stop it," Jim shouted before turning around, "let's start playing first, free style then."

"What's freestyle?" Deno asked.

"It's play as you like without any rules," Jim said before asking, "don't you have a free style here?"

They all glanced at each other while he only laughed, "alright, let's consider this a tactic then."

"And what should we do exactly in it again?" Roo asked in doubt.

"Improvise," Jim said before turning around, "Lan really is taking his time," he muttered.

"Should I go and fetch him?" Pat asked while an evil smile appeared on his face. He seemed to enjoy his moment of triumph over this Actimos.

"Alright," Jim smiled evilly as well, "go and don't be late, alright?"

"Gimme one minute," Pat ran fast to the outside before vanishing from others' sight.

"Y'know he will tease him, right?" Rick came closer to Jim and said.

"I know," Jim smiled, "but it was fun seeing Lan's reaction from before," he laughed and Rick only shook his head. "You are weird," he muttered.

"C'mon, let's have some fun," Jim said before the next moment he saw the two coming from the main gate.

"What happened?"

This was the same question everyone had in their minds the moment they spotted Lan.

He wasn't the same as he left, with disheveled hair and a tear or two over his clothes. "Were you… fighting?" Jim asked while examining him.

"I found a lot of crowd surrounding and preventing him from coming here," Pat sighed, "they kept harassing him since he was part of our team."

"Is this true?" Gordan came fast as he shouted in rage, "those bastards! Can't they pick someone their size?!!"

"Stop," Jim shouted before adding, "it's not correct to go and fight with them. This will only serve their purpose not ours," he took a deep breath before warning, "we should be more careful not to break any rules."

"And this?" Deno pointed to Lan, "isn't this against rules?"

"Technically speaking," Lim moved at this moment as he was the most experienced one here, "they didn't attack him, only blocked his way and used their giant bodies to inflict this damage."

"Isn't this equal to fighting?" Deno was speechless for a moment.

"It isn't," Lim shook his head, "at most they might get a warning, deduct some points from them, and mostly nothing will happen."

They all glanced weirdly at him which made him sigh. "You guys truly underestimate the power of relations here in the academy… Do you think this group came out of nowhere? They are backed with master, more than one actually. Even if you went to the council and issued a complaint, I guarantee you nothing will happen in the end."

His words made them all feel bitter, yet before anyone would object and argue, Lan finally spoke:

"I'm fine guys, they only caused little bruises and scratches… nothing serious."

"Are you sure?" Jim asked, "do you want to go to the hospital yard?"

"I'm fine," Lan smiled, "take it, I rented a lot of gear from the main stadium store."

Jim gave him a deep glance before nodding and accepted the ring. "We are in the game boys," he said while taking out a large pile of regular gears, "all who in the second team use these gears for now. Let's start training then."

He moved fast to the pitch, leaving others behind distributing the gears among themselves. The feeling he got every time he stepped on the grass field never got old.

"He said… improvise, right?" Lim asked Rick while they moved inside the field.

"Don't ask me buddie, he is the captain," Rick said while shaking his head, "I hope our captain knows what he is doing."

"Start!"

Jim stood on the side, the same place where Rana used to stand before. "I'll act as the ace for both teams. Once the ball comes to me, I'll run towards the opposite team's direction."

By this he worked as both teams' ace, training more efficiently despite exerting double the energy.

"Stop him!" Deno shouted as he moved fast to intercept Jim from crossing him.

"Throw the ball," yet another Jim asked for the ball as he appeared like lightning, crossing Deno and others from behind.

"It was a decoy!" Deno realized it as all did, but Jim was already sprinting in a speed no one could catch him with.

"Again," Jim returned with the ball after scoring a goal. "You shouldn't forget I'm not the only Jim on the field," he laughed and Deno could only sigh.

He was slightly distracted with what happened to Lan. After all Lan was his oldest friend here, alongside Jim and the two girls.

"Stop the three Jims," one of the bulltors shouted while three Jims were moving in unison towards the tankers of his team, "don't let them bypass you."

Just as he said these words, two Jims started to slow down a little while one kept advancing forward without pause. "He is the one, stop him," the bulltor shouted and instantly a group of three other bulltors moved to intercept Jim.

"Wrong guess," yet as they all surrounded him, that Jim sneered evilly while laughing at their fault.

He didn't have the ball, and just as he said that one of the two Jims moved fast, very fast that he bypassed all the team in mere moments before Rick threw the ball to him to arch a very long way in the air before landing peacefully over Jim's glove.

"You should hone your detection skills," Jim advised while returning after scoring a goal.

"You just are too cunning," Roo stepped in to speak for others, "you have strange chemistry with those decoys."

"Yeah I noticed that too," Lim came closer before adding, "what's the secret? Have you been training behind our backs? Are you in love?"

"Very funny," Jim laughed before adding, "I've just informed them how to act to deceive you."

"He is more cunning than you all think," one Jim said while smiling, "his mind is crowded with twisted ideas to fool you."

"That's great!"

This comment didn't come from any of the team members, but from Rana who suddenly appeared there like she was here from the beginning.

"Coach," everyone greeted her while Jim asked in doubt, "I thought you won't come except hours later."

"I took today off," she simply said before adding while noticing the questioning gazes they had, "what? You can take days off and masters can't?"

"I never heard of a master doing this before," Lim honestly said.

"Humph, that's because we all love our job," Rana said in pride like she wasn't the one to break this golden rule, "back to the game, I liked what you did with the decoys."

"I was trying to play freestyle here," Jim smiled.

"Freestyle?" Rana muttered in loss, "what's that?"

"We also were and still are ignorant to what he says," Rick shook his head as he admitted that.

"It's a way of playing without rules," Jim said.

"Without rules and tactics… how can you even win then?" Rana asked while trying to better understand his meaning.

"Improvise," Jim pointed to the decoys, "like what I did with them here. Just as the ball was with me, I hurriedly passed it before whispering something to the decoys."

"So you didn't agree on that beforehand?" Kro was more shocked to hear that.

"No, I just improvised what to do moments before doing it," Jim confessed.

"Amazing," Rana muttered, "like this you won't be read at all by your opponents, but…"

"Yeah, it requires a lot of focus and also a slight mistake and things would look worse for us," Jim completed what she was talking about.

"A double edged weapon," Rana said while thinking deeply about it, "but considering your lousy state and the strong opponent list you have… I believe this will be your only chance here."

"Strong opponent list?"

"The list is announced?"

"Aren't we supposed to fight a weak team?"

"What happened?"

All the members exclaimed in shock and doubt while some stole a glance towards Lim who softly muttered:

"I warned you guys, what I learnt about wasn't final yet."

"He isn't the one to blame," she sighed, "it's the other dirty masters' schemes against you. You were supposed to start up against one weak team, but they manipulated and changed the order. And…"

She paused and Jim couldn't help but ask in doubt:

"Is there more bad news?"

And she only nodded.