Chapter 26: The King's Buffet
The scoreboard read 3-0, but Eshan wasn't done. He stood at the halfway line, spinning the ball on his finger with a nonchalant grin as Team Y prepared for yet another restart.
Niko was a broken man. His "Watchtower" logic had been reduced to rubble. He looked at Eshan not as a rival, but as an unavoidable natural disaster.
"Hey, Isagi. Bachira," Eshan called out, his voice cool and steady. "The defense is wide open. They're so scared of me they've forgotten you exist. Want a taste?"
Bachira's eyes lit up with a golden, manic energy. "Ooh, the King is sharing his toys?"
"Just keep up," Eshan replied, his silver eyes flashing.
The whistle blew. Team Y tried a desperate long ball, but Eshan didn't even need to sprint. He tracked the flight of the ball with his Absolute Awareness, stepped into the lane before the striker even realized he'd lost it, and brought the ball down with a Frictionless Pivot.
Instead of charging forward himself, Eshan fired a pinpoint, 40-yard diagonal pass that screamed across the turf. It landed perfectly at the feet of Kunigami Rensuke on the left wing.
"Kunigami! Smash it!" Isagi yelled.
Kunigami didn't hesitate. He drove inside, his powerful frame shielding the ball from a desperate Suzuki. But as three defenders converged on him, Kunigami realized he was boxed in.
"Left side!" Eshan's voice cut through the noise.
Eshan had ghosted into the space behind the defense, drawing two markers with him just by his presence. That movement opened a massive "Red Sea" in the middle of the box.
Kunigami saw the opening Eshan had created. He didn't pass to Eshan—he used the space. He took one touch to set himself and unleashed a Left-Footed Mid-Range Power Shot.
BOOM!
The ball was a literal orange streak, slamming into the side netting with enough force to shake the entire goal frame.
TEAM Z 4 - 0 TEAM Y
Scorer: Kunigami Rensuke (#291)
Kunigami pumped his fist, a grin breaking across his stoic face. Eshan walked past him, giving him a cool nod. "Nice power. Keep that up and you might actually be useful."
The Final Execution
Team Y was in a state of total psychological collapse. They were playing like zombies. In the 85th minute, Eshan decided to put the final nail in the coffin.
He intercepted a weak pass from Okawa and started a slow, mocking dribble toward the center circle. He wasn't even sprinting. He was beckoning them.
"Is that all?" Eshan challenged, a playful but sharp edge to his voice. "I thought you guys were supposed to be the 'One-Counter' masters."
Niko charged at him, tears of frustration in his eyes. Eshan didn't even use a skill; he just stepped to the side, letting Niko fly past him into the grass.
Eshan saw Bachira Meguru dancing on the edge of the box, practically begging for the ball. With a casual flick of his ankle—a "No-Look Trivela"—Eshan sent the ball spinning into Bachira's path.
Bachira caught it, performed a double-stepover that left the last defender on his backside, and chipped the keeper with a cheeky, effortless lob.
TEAM Z 5 - 0 TEAM Y
Scorer: Bachira Meguru
The final whistle blew shortly after.
Eshan stood in the center of the pitch, the silver glow of his aura fading as he exhaled a cloud of mist into the cold night air. Five goals. A clean sheet. Absolute dominance.
He looked at his teammates—Isagi, Kunigami, Bachira—who were all panting, their eyes glowing with a new kind of hunger. They had tasted blood, but they all knew who had provided the feast.
Eshan wiped a stray strand of black hair from his forehead and looked toward the cameras in the corners of the stadium.
"Game over," he whispered.