Blue lock: the true egoist

"Did you really forget what happened last time you tried going against me in a one on one?" Karasu asked as he ran next to Jude. He followed him closely, both of their shoulders clashing a few times in the midst of their run. 

"I didn't. And I will make sure you won't forget this one as well." Jude spat out, his words laced with venom as he pushed Karasu's shoulder once more.

The usual zone defense of team V was now switched for a man-to-man marking. 

Karasu was closely guarding Jude. On their left Miyata was guarded by Himizu, and on their right, Akira had Hiori closely following behind him. 

"This is getting annoying, playing against myself isn't as easy as I thought." Karasu scoffed as he made fun of the situation. He launched a sudden tackle, but Jude was able to evade it by half an inch. 

Unfortunately, this forced Jude to stop in his tracks.

Karasu took this opportunity and got in front of him, effectively blocking his path. "What are you going to do now, Mr cheap copy?" 

Karasu's words weren't far from the truth.

Jude could be seen as a cheap copy of Karasu. The only difference is that Jude was weaker when it came to pure stats. 

He was already aware of it. But most of Karasu's stats were superior to his. His training allowed him to close this gap, but it was still nowhere near enough to be on equal footing with him. In a normal one-on-one, his chances of victory against Karasu would be less than 40%.

'Or at least that was the case in the past.' 

Although Jude focused a lot on improving his stats, he knew that a week wasn't enough to close the gap between him and Karasu. At best he was just increasing his chances by 2 or 3%.

For that reason, he had to develop a brand new weapon. Or, more accurately, recycle an old weapon to be able to use it at a higher level.

His stamina. 

It used to be his strongest stat by far. It was the only weapon he could rely on in his debuts. But now things were different, the environment was nowhere near the same. His opponents were a lot stronger, they all had decent stamina, and knew how to play together and counter a player whose only strong point is his stamina. This led to him slightly disregarding it and abandoning it. He even lost his precious first title due to this issue. 

The title [stamina freak] granted him a +1 in his stamina. It wasn't much, but it was still a loss. 

Every title is precious in its own way.

[Team X's striker] granted him a +1 in his shooting power and shooting accuracy.

Even [Osaka's emperor] had some benefits, although useless in the long term. It gives him a +1 in every stats when he plays in Osaka. 

Jude knew that if he wanted to win, he had to evolve his old weapon. Create a new weapon, one which would allow him to compete on equal ground with people such as Karasu. And that's all he worked on in his free time. 

After taking into consideration his new stats, he realized that his old tactics might still be of use. All they needed was to be tweaked a bit. 

57 in stamina. 58 in acceleration. 53 in ball control, and 50 in dribbling. 

That was all he needed for his new weapon. 

Jude flashed a smile, before suddenly switching direction. He used his new weapon, his acceleration, to take Karasu by surprise and make a run to the right. 

Karasu's physical fitness barely allowed him to catch up to Jude before it was too late, but it was obvious to everyone that Jude almost got rid of him for that split second. 

This wouldn't have been possible for Jude a few weeks ago, but now it felt as natural as breathing. 

His high ball control stat is what allows him to keep the ball under control even during such fast bursts of speed. It was the final puzzle piece he was working on to complete his new weapon. 

Now that it was finally perfected, it was time to put it to the test. 

After running 10 meters to the right, with no apparent purpose, Jude finally slowed down for a few seconds. 

"What was that supposed to be?" Karasu asked. He took back his position in front of Jude without much trouble. 

'Getting rid of him won't be easy.' Jude thought to himself. 

His original plan was to use his acceleration to get past him or at least stop him from following him so closely, and it did work. But his top speed was the problem. Although it was superior to most people he met in high school football. Karasu couldn't be compared to them, he was in a league of his own. 

He didn't have much of a specialty like some other players had, but he was extremely good at everything. And that was enough to cause his opponents a massive headache. 

'If I want to get past him, I'll need to use another method.' Jude was determined to succeed. 

With karasu glued to him, he unexpectedly turned his back on him and passed the ball back to Yanagi.

Yanagi immediately understood Jude's intentions. As soon as he received the ball, he immediately passed it back in a high arc forward. 

This move attracted everyone's attention, they were all focused on the trajectory of the ball — including Karasu. They all had the same thought in mind. 

'Who is he passing it to?'

Unbeknownst to them, Jude took this opportunity to use his new weapon and slip up past Karasu. He blitzed past him and sprinted to where he approximately predicted the landing spot of the ball would be. 

Karasu soon noticed and cursed as he hurried to stop him.

One of the defenders stepped forward, believing that the ball this pass was just a mistake made by Yanagi under pressure.

He was convinced that they would easily gain back possession, but he failed to notice the sight of Jude running in his direction with Karasu sprinting behind him in a rush.