Extra's Ascent

"No!... NO!... Go, Opius! Let's stop her!" Valeria's voice cracked with urgency, panic lacing her words.

Selina had the ball. That meant her next target was the goalpost no doubt. They couldn't afford to let her get any closer.

"I know that too!" Opius replied sharply.

He steadied himself and dashed forward. Being the nearest, he had the best chance to intercept her early on before she closed the gap.

"Back off!" Selina roared.

With a stretch of her right foot backwards, she forced Opius to hesitate. He stayed just out of her reach, her leg a clear warning that closing in could come at a cost.

Her action had created distance?! Just about the right one to escape.

With him temporarily out of the equation, Selina surged ahead, gaining momentum. Aydin trailed behind, struggling to match her pace.

"You're not getting through!" Valeria shouted, darting in front of Selina before she could advance any farther.

"You think you can stop me?" Selina halted abruptly, holding the ball in one hand like a predator cradling its prey.

"I can try!" Valeria growled, her resolve unshaken.

From her clenched fist, flames erupted, wrapping her arm in searing brilliance. She launched forward with no hesitation, fully aware of the gulf between their ranks. Yet, in that moment, it didn't matter. This wasn't about class; it was about grit.

Charging head-on at Selina Von Degure? Madness, some might say. But Valeria didn't care. This wasn't the time to yield to hierarchy.

She hurled her blazing fist toward Selina only to be stopped cold.

A wall of earth surged up from the ground, forming an abrupt barrier that obstructed both her vision and path. Before she could react, an earthen hand emerged from the earth wall structure and drove into her abdomen, sending her flying over the edge.

She plummeted nearly a hundred feet before crashing hard onto the ground below.

"You're decades too early to challenge me," Selina sneered as she bounded across the stone platforms, leaping from one to another like a phantom dancer.

A-rank? S-rank? The chasm between them wasn't just wide, it was debilitating. Unbearable. The disparity in their abilities wasn't merely noticeable; it was devastating.

Selina's control, her timing, her instinctive decision-making. It was all on a level Valeria couldn't yet fathom.

But Opius had seen everything. He'd learned. Selina's technique against Valeria wasn't just brute force; it was calculated dominance.

And he refused to be the next to fall so easily.

He kept pace as best he could, but Selina's speed made it feel like he was chasing a shadow that danced just beyond reach.

"EN-OUGH!" he bellowed, voice cracking with pent-up rage.

With a sweep of his arms, he conjured twin cyclones. The tornadoes spiralled atop the floating platforms, intertwining but never colliding like two forces perfectly balanced in chaos.

He hurled the tempest toward Selina.

Before she could adjust, the twisters engulfed her, lifting her off her feet. The wind howled as she rose higher and higher, spinning uncontrollably. Yet in the hit of it all, her grip on the ball remained firm, knuckles pale with tension.

Selina fought against the pull, struggling to escape the aerial prison. But once she'd reached a terrifying altitude, Opius abruptly dispelled the magic.

Gravity reclaimed her.

"Now's your moment!" he cried from atop the bricks, eyes flickering toward Aydin, who had started rushing in to support Selina.

"I'm on it!" Valeria answered, the pain of her earlier fall still echoing in her body.

Selina might have fallen her once, but it was not enough to break her her spirit.

Valeria was back in the game, ready to grab any chance of victory available to her team.

That brief window of chaos? She'd waited for it.

Valeria scaled the vertical surface with purpose. Her boots struck the wall, and then... she propelled herself sideways, jumping into the air directly into the path of Selina's plummeting descent.

The scene shifted into slow motion.

Valeria stretched out completely, suspended in the air, while Selina tumbled downward, ball gripped tightly in her left hand.

"I'll be taking this!" Valeria announced, reaching upward with both hands.

Valeria's jump timing was impeccable?! Accurately fixed to see that she and Selina would have an almost collision moment going on.

A chance that would get her closer to the ball Selina was holding on it.

"Over my dead body!" Selina snarled, extending her right arm. The gesture said it all, she wouldn't surrender the ball without resistance.

A good thing. It was not as though Valeria ever expected Selina to willingly hand it over as she plummeted downward without control.

"I wasn't asking," Valeria retorted, her glide precise, her fingers aimed to snatch the orb.

It was all falling into place.

Their movement, their angle, their momentum, everything converged into a fleeting instant where they would almost collide. But not quite. Instead, their paths would graze, Valeria sailing across to the opposite wall, and Selina continuing her plunge toward the floor.

That instant arrived.

Valeria's gaze met Selina's, the goddess of the school eye to eye. She surged forward, hands outstretched.

Selina, refusing to yield, launched her fist toward Valeria's face.

But then, something went wrong.

The punch never landed. Or rather, it didn't land where she'd intended.

Her strike didn't slam into Valeria's chest, rather it phased through her.

Valeria's chest area shimmered, just for an instant, as though made of mist.

She wasn't intangible. Not exactly. But at that exact moment, her body responded like it wasn't entirely solid.

"What the...?" Selina's thoughts screamed, though her mouth didn't.

"Thanks!" Valeria smirked, her palms brushing against Selina's fingers and swiping the ball clean out of her grip.

Time fractured.

Seconds fragmented into slivers. Both girls existed in that broken shard of reality, observing every flicker of motion, every twitch of muscle, every grain of dust suspended in the air.

Selina's mind reeled as she descended.

Valeria now had the ball.

Selina was empty-handed.

The impossible had happened.

What in the name of everything sacred had just occurred?