บท 40: Chapter 40: Everyone's Stake
The score is now 8 against 6. With the spectacular entry of Erap, the momentum is slowly shifting back to the side of team Bagsik.
Meanwhile, Chiko and his team continued to fight with their guards all up. Especially now that Erap, who seems pretty popular in the area, is currently doing the service. At the moment, team Bagsik is currently moving to their third service.
"I see your weak spot!" the eyes of Erap narrowed as he took a quick glimpse at the side of team Madtaks before spiking the incoming ball.
WHAPAAANG!~
The ball crossed the net in no time towards Mark's position but a little towards the back.
Hearing Erap's shout and seeing the ball coming to his side, Mark's bald head bulged with veins out of anger, "This bastard is underestimating me huh. Let me show you-"
Fortunately, Mark has an impressive reaction and still managed to react on time. The only problem was his flexibility. The ball came too fast and the spot it aimed was his shoulder. With his huge and heavy figure, adjusting to such a close shot was proving to be extremely hard for him.
As the ball was about to him, Mark suddenly hesitated on how to receive the ball "W-wait, should I use heading? Or a chest stop? Maybe a jumping thigh stop? Whateve-"
Seeing the hesitation on Mark's fluffy face, Erap smiled with a victorious gaze.
"Easy ace," Erap whispered to himself as he watched Mark struggled to stop his serve before finally losing it.
"Nice one! I knew it!" Glorio shouted excitedly.
"Now we are back on track!" Noynoy added with a wide grin.
"Sorry guys," Mark told his team as he picked up the ball and handed it to Ferdy who happens to be tossing the ball on their turn.
"It's fine. What's more important is we learn from that mistake." Chiko with a wide smile patted Mark's back before adding, "But of course we still need to win because how are you going to pay me? I remember there is still about two weeks to go before we get to receive our scholarship allowances. By that time, your twenty pesos credit should have gone to 50 pesos due to the interest and-"
But before Chiko could continue on his business grumble, Ferdy quickly butted in, "Back to the issue Chiko. How do you plan to tackle our current situation? Any idea?"
"Well, I don't really have a particularly smart plan. All I do know is that I will do my best with everything. After all, there is a precious 300 pesos at stake on this one." Chiko replied with a straight face.
"Sigh, I knew it. Anyway, I have a quick suggestion, or a plan if you call it." Ferdy waved for the two and they both quickly gathered. Seeing this the referee shouted,
"What are you doing? Hurry up in one minute or I will deduct points!"
"This will be a quick one, ref!" Ferdy replied with a bright smile before continuing to their plan.
Seeing team Madtaks doing a quick huddle on the court, the spectators laughed and mocked.
"Look! The newbies are actually planning on the spot?"
"As if that would help them win against team Bagsik now that Erap is on the floor!"
"Hahaha! They had two straight aces from Erap himself, of course they would shit their pants and change their plan."
"Still, I doubt they stand a chance. Erap's skills are just on the whole new level."
"These nobody newbies will be just another snack for the veteran's record."
"I agree. I wonder if there will be a real team that can make him pull out his full potential."
Meanwhile back at the court, the team Madtaks were about to finish their short huddle.
"Are you sure about that? I thought I have to adjust, our coach trained me for that." Mark asked Ferdy with a confused look.
"I know, but right now, it won't work. In order to adjust quickly, you need to have a lighter body and its just not working for you at the moment. Erap's spikes are too fast and before you finalize your decision, the ball has already landed. Just do what you are familiar with doing and we can practice on your adjustments later when we are back on training." Ferdy explained with a serious face.
"Well...If you really say so." Mark was still not confident.
"Just trust yourself dud. I saw how good you are at using the heading style. It's not something new to you obviously." Chiko supported the plan.
"Well of course using my head as a weapon is my specialty. I have been bashing people's faces with my bare head since I was living in the street."
"One minute is over! Get back to your spot and start!" the referee did not give any more allowances and impatiently blew the whistle!
PRRRRRT!~
Everyone is back to their spot, Chiko is still the Tekong but Mark is the current feeder or tosser while Ferdy is at the spiker's spot.
"Oh, so they swap spots again. So scary" Noynoy commented sarcastically after seeing the team Madtaks.
"Doesn't matter. They can swap a hundred times and plan a billion times. But our real skills will still destroy them." Glorio added while turning his head to look at the intimidating presence of Erap.
WHAPAANG!~
Chiko's spike serve is coming. Surprisingly, it wasn't very fast nor tricky. The ball crossed the net and went towards Noynoy's spot - trying to probe the latter's reaction.
"Easy catch." Noynoy quickly adjusted his stance and received the ball without difficulty.
His next inside kick was actually a toss towards the net but the pitch was not as high as a normal spike and it looked as if he was just returning the ball easily to team Madtaks. The ball was tossed at a level just enough to cross the net's height.
"On guard!" Ferdy suddenly shouted.
Seeing the ball being sent back with a simple inside kick, Mark was confused,
"What? They're sending it back without even spike"
"It's a quicky spike get ready!" Ferdy's shout was too late.
"Then I will use head-" Mark already decided how to counter the sudden spike.
Unfortunately, Erap had a sinister smile on his face.
"You want to use heading? Go ahead and eat this!" Before Mark could finish his words, Erap's figure flashed before his eyes and executed a swift summersault right in front of his face.
WHAPAA-PHOK!
The ball bounced away as if it hit a wall - giving a successful point for the team Bagsik, increasing their score gap now at 10-6!
As for Mark who was at the front of the spike, there was a clear deep sepak takraw ball imprint on his face.
"Whahahhaa! Did you see that!? He ate Erap's spike!"
"How did it taste baldy? Was it crispy and juicylicious?" The spectators were laughing nonstop.
"WHY YOU-!" Mark's fist was about to swing when Chiko and Ferdy arrived and stopped him.
"Let me go! Let me crush that cocky bastard's face once and for all!" Mark was bursting in anger while the spectators and team Bagsik laughed their assess off. Fortunately, getting hit by the sepak takraw ball was not as serious as getting hit by a bowling ball to the face. Not to mention, Mark's face was extraordinarily sturdy.
"Calm down Mark! We can't make trouble here or we will get punished by the school!" Ferdy reminded the raging big guy with all his strength.
"Yeah. Remember your promise to stay away from violence too! Think about your old man!" Chiko told Mark and the latter quickly snapped out before slowly calming down. Mark tried his best to calm himself by ignoring all sounds and focused only on breathing in and out.
"Oh, Sayang! I was expecting him to start a fight with me so I will have more excuses to kick his fluffy face." Erap calmly taunting team Madtaks.
"We are here to play and not looking for trouble," Ferdy told him.
"Well, I guess trouble found you huh." Glorio quickly butted in from the side. Ferdy decided to ignore him and patted Mark's back to help calm the big guy down.
"Hah...Hah...huh..." A brief moment later, Mark finally calmed down.
"Sorry I almost got us in trouble guys."
"It's okay. As long as we play by the rules, I know we can win this."
"No, it's okay. I would have been raging too if he did that to me." Ferdy was trying to cheer Mark when his body suddenly twitched after smelling something.
"This smell..." Ferdy's eyes were filled with fear while his body started to sweat profusely.
"Oh, it looks like he got me good with that spike." Mark calmly said after noticing the blood trickling out of his nose.
However, after remembering something, he looked at Ferdy with worry.
"Oh-sh*t. Your curse Ferdy..." Mark said worriedly.
"I-I am fine. I can control it." Ferdy's body trembled at the sudden flow of energy flowing in his body. His carnal instincts kicking in while his vision started to darkened. His aswang curse slowly reveals itself giving Ferdy an unexpected burst of strength, flexibility and sensitivity.
All it takes is for Ferdy to smell blood and his Aswang curse will surface. Mark quickly wiped the blood on his nose fearing it might make Ferdy's condition worse.
Seeing Ferdy trying his best to control himself, Chiko hurriedly covered him and asked worriedly,
"Are you okay Ferdy? We can stop the game and just go back home. We can't risk your secret-"
"What are you worrying about? Why should we go back because of this?" Ferdy's answer surprised both Chiko and Mark. They knew just how dreaded the cursed people called Aswang are. And the moment Ferdy reveals his true condition, the people might just throw stones at him on the spot or even shoot him.
"But your curse-"
"Don't worry about it. This much is something I can still control. Not to mention, I also need to learn how to control this curse or it will continue to be a burden for our team for a long time. I can't let that happen." Ferdy said with a resolute gaze. His eyes was starting to tint a little reddish a faint sign of his first transformation. Fortunately, it stopped only there. His hands and skin did not turn into something scary - at least now this time.
"I really hate this curse, but right now, I think I can make something out of it." Ferdy suddenly stood up, revealing his reddish eyes and dark chilling aura.
"Oh sh*t!"
"His eyes turned red, did he caught something with his eyes?"
"He's scaring me actually."
Seeing this, the people felt chills and stood up in fear. They thought they are seeing an aswang at the stage but realizing it was still morning and reminding them that Aswangs are not real, they quickly calmed down, albeit a little wary of Ferdy.
"What happened to your teammate? His eyes are a little reddish. Did he get sick? Sore-eyes perhaps?" The one-eyed referee asked with a little fear on his face.
"Sorry ref, it's just some sand got into my eyes. Shall we continue?" Ferdy calmly said while acting as if his eyes are in pain.
"Very well! Let's continue."
Mark and Chiko worriedly looked at the sinister smiling Ferdy. It was an unusual sight for someone who is known to be very calm. Little did they knew that Ferdy was never been this excited.
"Slowly but surely, I will take over this curse and use it as my own power without harming people. This is what I promised her after all." Ferdy murmured to himself while his hand formed a fist before switching back to an open palm.
"Let's fight back," Ferdy shouted.
Seeing the undaunted will of Ferdy, Chiko quickly put his hand on top of their cursed friend's hand.
"Let's crush them!" Mark did not want to lose too, especially now that his ball-stamped face was still aching from the last impact.
With a swing of their hands, Ferdy led the cheering chant,
"One, Two, Three! Teaaaaam Madtaks!"
"Aho!"
"Aho!"
While the people looked at them with mocking gazes, everyone from team Madtaks gave it their best.
While Chiko is doing everything he can do, Mark is willing to forgive those who offended him for the sake of the team.
Meanwhile, Ferdy is willing to fight his curse for the team, hoping to eventually tame the beast inside him.
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iamnaz7
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