Blue lock: the true egoist

The ball's momentum finally died as it began its fall.

The defender was taken aback as Jude's tall frame popped up in between him and the descending ball. Jude jumped up and trapped it with his chest in front of the defender's incredulous look. 

"Watch closely." Jude looked down on Karasu with a mocking smile.

The ball gently bounced off his chest. He then trapped it with his knee while keeping it up as if he was going to start juggling with the ball, but instead he used it to reposition himself and turn himself towards the goal before arming his volley shot from 22 meters away from the goal. 

"Don't let him shoot!!" Karasu ordered.

His teammates hurriedly tried to carry out his command by standing in the way of Jude's shot. 

Two of the defenders were now standing between Jude and the goal, but they were unable to cover all the gaps or stop Jude from finishing his shot. 

Feeling the danger coming from this situation, Karasu jumped up to grab Jude's shirt and stop him even if he had to commit a foul. 

Unfortunately for him, even his last resort wasn't enough to stop Jude who was still as determined as ever to settle his old scores with him. He was in a trance-like state, with only one goal in mind — scoring. 

He followed up with his shot, ignoring Karasu nudging on his shirt from behind and making him lose his balance. He shot the ball with as much strength as he could muster in the midst of his fall. 

The ball flew in the direction of the net at such a high speed that even the goalkeeper found it hard to react in time. He threw himself to save it, but at the last moment the added spin on the ball made it curve more than intended, making the ball twist to the left and hit the left goalpost. 

Akira and Miyata were both already running at full speed, on their way to grab the loose ball and finish it off.

Suddenly, the sound of a loud whistle stopped everyone in their tracks. 

"Team V, number 9, Tabito Karasu!" A voice announced from the speakers of the stadium. "Yellow card for malicious foul play."

Everyone suddenly stopped in their tracks and went back to reality after realizing what happened.

"Who's going to shoot it?" Yanagi asked while placing the ball on the spot of the foul, 22 meters away from the nets. 

"Akira should take it." Jude said in a monotonous voice. After quickly using his [Eyes of the Lords] he determined that Akira had the best free kick stat, 49. 

His own wasn't far behind, at a 47, and he knew that he could rightfully take it, but all he could care about was maximizing his chances of victory. Jude had already scored enough goals to be the best striker in his block, so he wasn't too worried about it. 

"Fuck off! Do I look that pathetic to you? As if I'd accept that." Akira yelled out before storming off to their side of the goal, not even interested in staying in his usual forward position. He went on the defense without allowing Jude to even refute him. 

Akira was extremely pissed. Being guarded by Hiori made him unable to play like he used to.

For the first time in a game, he felt useless. 

And yet he was being offered such an important opportunity? He simply couldn't accept it. He already owed Jude far too much. Most of his goals were scored from his assists. 

Akira was tired of owing him favors. 

This time he was set on repaying him, he couldn't care less about scoring more goals.

"Take it. It's yours to begin with." Miyata comforted. 

"Since when are you kind enough to give those opportunities to others? If you really want to give it up, you can give it to me." Yanagi said, laughing at his own joke. 

"Stay on standby, I want you all ready to get it if I miss it." 

"As if you'd miss."

"Fair point." Jude replied with a confident smile. 

Once everyone was in position. Jude got ready to take the free kick. He took a few steps back before starting his run up.

He slowly ran up to the ball, adjusting his body while preparing to take the shot. 

Jude saw that the wall in front of him was a little too close, probably due to the lack of an actual referee who would designate the exact distance of the wall. This made it increasingly harder to score on the left side.

Knowing this as well, the goalkeeper was very clearly leaning towards the right side of the goal.

All of Jude's options were cut off. But he could still try to pass it to one of his teammates. 

After considering all the possibilities, Jude looked up one last time, this time with eyes brimming with confidence as he shot the ball to the left of the wall. He tried to add as much spin as he could, in hope to see the ball go around the wall and score in the top left corner. 

And as planned, the ball flew high up in the air, curving right beside the wall, nearly hitting the head of the player standing at the extremity of the wall, but luckily he was the shortest of the bunch and the ball went a few centimeters over his head. 

Jude's face lit up as he saw the ball go past the wall, the goalkeeper was way too far to stop it. 

"I already told you, your plays are too predictable." Hiori murmured in a meek voice. He appeared beside the goalpost and leaped up in the way of the ball's trajectory, positioning his right foot to intercept the ball. 

His short body didn't allow him to trap the ball as he expected, the shot was too powerful and ended up bouncing off his foot. 

Even if Hiori was able to guess Jude's actions and the trajectory of the ball, all he could do was redirect the shot. 

"Fuck!!" Miyata grunted as a pushed away a defender and hurriedly ran up to the loose ball. 

He was the closest to it, and was able to get there first. Without much time he shot the ball however he could. In the middle of his sprint, he forced his body to twist and shot the ball as hard as he could, without caring about the fact that he was losing balance due to the slight push of the opponent guarding him. 

The ball flew up in the direction of the goal as Miyata fell down to the ground. 

Everyone's eyes were glued on the ball as it flew up, Hiori was too far to react.

The goalkeeper was now the only hope of Team V, he jumped up to block the shot. Unfortunately, he was unable to reach it and the ball flew over him before finally hitting the crossbar. 

The ball bounced off the crossbar, but this time it didn't bounce inside the stadium, but instead, behind the net. 

Team X's offensive ultimately failed.