With the quarterfinals, as well as the exams coming up, the next couple of weeks at Asteria were jampacked with action.

The next day, I reached practice after my afternoon classes, my head buzzing with the revision question that Professor Flint, our mathematics teacher had set. It seemed like thankfully, the syllabus at Asteria was not much different than at Stonewall when it came to Maths. Which atleast was a relief since, in the rest of the subjects, I was scrambling to raise my standards.

The ground was already abuzz with activity when I reached. I could see Aris stretching and chatting with Justin and Maddison, both of whom seemed to be listening to him intently. I tore my eyes away from him, and my stomach clenched uncomfortably as it landed on Elijah, who had finally decided to come out of his aestivation.

Our eyes met, and something flashed in his. Regret? Anger? Shame? I wasn't sure. I felt like the air around me had solidified and glared at him defiantly, Crystal's words ringing in my head. This was a personal battle, and there was no way I would let him win. He tore his eyes away from mine and called for the team's attention.

"Greenwood-" he said. "I want you to change the terrain simultaneously, and to make sure that you are uninterrupted in wielding your power, I will assign a defense just for you," he looked at me, almost too deliberately. Like he wasn't ashamed or afraid that he had tried to kill me. "You'll be his constant defense, Hunt," he said. I didn't react. I was highly uncomfortable with the entire situation. I could feel Aris' eyes on me, but thankfully, Elijah quickly gave out instructions and we broke to start playing.

It seemed, however, that I didn't have much to defend against. The players from our own team were too engaged in trying to navigate the rapidly changing topography, ranging from thick forests, rocky lands, and even a hill at one point. The team was struggling to maintain their gait, the horses often whinnying in protest. Aris maintained a distance from me, never looking at me or acknowledging me in any way. Like there was an invisible wall between us. I wanted to talk to him, confront him, tell him everything. But when I looked over at his unusually cold green eyes, I couldn't get myself to do it and instead felt my heart clenching painfully.

The match ended as darkness fell, and the entire team except for Aris and I dismounted their horses looking extremely haggard. Maddison rolled right off her horse and lay flat in the ground, staring up at the sky and muttering. "If the elves are worse than this, I don't know what we are going to do."

There were mumbles of agreement. Elijah straightened up, wincing slightly. He had fallen down quite a few times when his horse had reared in protest to the unpredictable terrain. His face was covered with dust and grime, his hair glistening with sweat as he spoke.

"We only need to score twice. Then go completely on defense," he shook his head, wincing again. If I ignored the fact that he had tried to kill me, I could appreciate the dignity he was showing. It seemed like after the opening match, and he had striven to become a better leader, and the team was working with much greater harmony than before.

Justin sighed, "Alright, everyone gets to your dorms and rest up. We will need it tomorrow."

We led our horses back to the stable behind the ground in silence. I could sense the stress and exhaustion that everyone was feeling. I deliberately fell behind, not willing to face anyone.
Despite hardly taking part in the practice, I was still exhausted, and after a quick dinner, went straight back to my room. I lay down on the bed and fell asleep, waking when I felt the mild heat of the morning sun on my face. I glanced at my wristwatch, which I had placed on the bed stand, and saw that it was seven. Two hours before the match was to start.

I went into the mess hall after a quarter of an hour and found it abuzz with noise and activity, much to my dismay. I took a bowl of cereal and was trying to find out an empty table when I saw Nia sitting at a lone corner as she ate her cereal. I deliberated whether I should go to her. I hadn't realized I had been staring at her before she looked at me and smiled. I walked over to her, feeling a slights sense of trepidation as I sat beside her.

"Big game today. How're you feeling?"

I didn't say anything, playing with the contents of my bowl as I gently twirled the spoon around between my fingers. The truth was, I wasn't really feeling anything. I didn't think I cared enough about the match to be nervous. "Everyone else is really nervous," I said.

She nodded. "Yes. The Onyxes have proved to be an adamant opponent even in the past."

I took a spoonful of cereal and ate, feeling awkwardly out of place.

"Both of you simply need to take your head out of your asses," she said, and I spluttered.

"What?"

She sighed."You and Aris. I don't know what happened, but-" she shook her head, exasperated. "You need to sort it out, whatever it is."

I didn't answer, deciding to concentrate on my food. She sighed again. "How's your preparation going? For the exams, I mean?"

"Do you want me to cry or something," I muttered as she smiled.

"I know the match, and everything has kept you busy. But, you really need to focus on your academics as well. I can help you if you want," she said. "With everything except History because I suck at it," I gulped a spoonful of cereal and nodded. "Yeah, that would be great. Thanks."

It was almost eight by the time we finished breakfast, and we left the mess together. She bid goodbye to me and headed off to her dorm, wishing me luck for the match as I headed towards my room.

I hopped into the shower, my eyes widening in shock as I looked at the roman numbers on my forearm. They were so red they almost looked black. I let the water trickle gently over it and wondered why it kept changing colour. Was it related to my powers, perhaps?

I made my way to the grounds half an hour later; the stadium was already filling up with excited students. I turned to the opponent's side, and although I was prepared to see elves, it still took me by shock. There were hundreds of elves who had already taken their seat, waving banners and flags with the names and faces of their players. Their skin had different shades, ranging from blue, yellow, green, to human-like even. Their pointy ears were visible slightly under their long, vibrantly coloured hair and all of them seemed to be really tall. Their features were sharp and pristine, somehow making them look even more mature.

I made my way to the locker room, where half of the team was already seated. Justin and Isaiah stood deep in conversation at the back end. Maddison was sitting on the floor, studying her mallet as Hector leaned over her. Benedict was sitting quietly beside them, gazing off into nothing. Aris and Elijah were nowhere in sight, which frankly, was a relief.

I sat on one of the benches, my mind wandering. A few minutes later, Aris walked in. He nodded curtly at some of the team, determinedly not looking at me as he took a solitary bench near the back of the room. Elijah entered soon after, his jaw set.

"The Onyxses have arrived. Let's do this."

There were cheers and whoops as everyone got to their feet, charged. He gestured for us to form a circle around him as he spoke. "I know that they are not goun go be easy. But we have been slaughtered and still managed to survive. We have been on a streak ever since. I need each one of you to believe in yourself today. Remember the tactics and lean towards intelligence and not mere physical strength or stamina, both of which is lesser than the elves," he took a deep breathe. "Alright. On to it. Victorieefchi.""

We walked out into the grounds where our horses already stood in formation. Racuous roar of cheers thundered across the stadium in our welcome. Even though I didn't really seem to care much for the match, the adrenaline in the air was infectious, and made me nervous. We climbed onto the horses and stood in position as the opposite team flocked over to us. I did a double take as I saw their horses, which seemed to be much larger than ours. It seemed to me that even our horses felt the same as there was a flurry of restless neighing. Several of the team members exchanged glances and I could feel their trepidation, matched by mine.

The captain was a tall, beautiful elf with serene features and long platinum blond hair tied loosely. She nodded at Elijah, a challenging smirk on her face as the referee let out the series of whistles that signaled for the match to have started.

He released the ball and even before any of our teams could move, the elves were on it.

Our team split up, taking defensive stances.
The elves passed the ball at the speed of light, it was getting extremely difficult to follow the game as it became a blur of motion that our team was barely putting up with. Then suddenly, the terrain changed and I had to hang tightly onto my horse as it reared wildly in fear. I tried to soothe him gently, talking in whispers as the entire arena became a sandy desert that made it harder for the horses to walk.

I glanced over at their team and was shocked to see that their own horse seemed to have no trouble whizzing through the sand. Their captain rode with flourish towards our end, facing no resistance and scored a goal as the Onyx end of the stadium burst into cheers. I gulped. It felt like we had been standing still the entire time.

Elijah glanced at Aris, his eyes wide as he nodded and closed his eyes, changing the terrain to a thick forest, something that our horses were more used to. The elves however, were well acquainted with nature as well and ended up reaching our end of the court before Isaiah was able to intercept the ball, finally putting our team on the offense.

They started racing towards the other end as I spotted one of the elves who finally seemed to realize that Aris was the one changing terrain. He closed his eyes, trying to change it again as I quickly created an orb of light and blasted it at him. His eyes flew open as he gazed around in alarm. I wasn't sure if it counted as cheating, but as long as he didn't realise who had done it, I would be fine.

The score was levelled after a few minutes and five terrain changed before the first period finally came to an end and the icy tundra, courtesy of the elves, finally disappeared to reveal the stadium.

We gathered at the corner of the ground, panting hard. I looked at all the memebrs and saw that everyone looked really exhausted apart from Aris.

"This is going to be the longest match ever isn't it?" Maddison groaned, placing her hand on her waist and shaking her head. Her hair was full of dry leaves which had clung to her.

Elijah sighed. "They are really fast and-" he glanced over at them and to my shock I saw that they were laughing and smiling, looking good as new.

"They seem to have infinite stamina. We might need to change tactics." He finished.

"How?" Aris asked as Elijah continued.

"All of you get into defense. We conserve energy this third and go offensive in the next one," everyone nodded as the referee blasted short whistles, signaling the beginning of the second third.

This period was much better than the last, our team managed to put up an impenetrable defense which left the opponents frustrated and cursing. Elijah however seemed pleased.

"Alright," he said at the last third."This is the time to go on offensive," he rounded on Aris. "You go up ahead. You have the advantage of navigating the terrain. Justin, Hunt and Isaiah will be covering you. Hector-" he flinched ever so slightly. "Benedict and I will be on the defense."

Almost ten minutes into the final third of the match, there had been no changes to the scoreboard ad the crowd was getting restless. The Onyx team had gone on complete offensive, which kept pushing us further and further back into our own half.

"Greenwood, Leave. Now!" Elijah said, glancing at the scoreboard. My heart lurched as I saw the time and realized we only had four minutes to make sure that the game would not end in a tie. A tie would lead to added minutes for both the halves, followed by a penalty shootout. If after two penaty shoot outs the score remained indecisive, then the team who had won the previous matches with the greatest margins would win. Which would mean that we would lose. Aris nodded and started racing toward the opposite end, taking cue, I followed him.

The sudden breakthrough left some of their members shocked as they watched us fly past, however, their middle order was well in place to intercept us. The elf in front of me, a orange headed girl raised her arms and I saw to my shock, masisve tendrils emerging from the forest terrain. They lashed upwards menacingly towards Aris who was still racing on. His momentum would carry him forwards and entangle him in the thick branches.

I made a split decision and sent a slash of burning light towards the tendrils, burning and dissolving them into ashes as the elf looked at me, aghast. I grinned at her as we flew past and closer towards the net. Aris changed the terrain to grassland, giving us a clearview of the huddle up ahead. Three of their members were rooted in front of the net, glaring at him defiantly.

I ran alongside him, my hand creating an orb of light in case they tried any tricks. Aris glanced at me fleetingly, much to my shock, before his eyes were back infront of him again. It seemed like he was trying to devise some plan.

All the three elves spread their arms and my horse staggered to a halting stop as a huge wall of twisted ivy rose in front of us like a magnificent creature. There were cries of awe as the shadow rose over us. The wall was too strong, too thick for me to burn away. It was wide, spanning almost half the court and leaving a few feet distance on either side.

I looked at Aris and to my surprise, he nodded slightly. He looked directly at me, and then at the wall again before I realized what he meant. He opened his palms, trying to create an identical wall as I quickly made my way towards the few feet of ground which was not covered by the ivy. The wall Aris had created was almost as large as the other one. The two majestic creatures of the earth seemed to be locked in a fierce battle of gazes. Aris looked at me, nodded and sent the ball whizzing towards me with expert strength and precision. I knew I needed to act fast before the elves realised what was happening. I managed to control the ball and flattened myself against the horse as we ran like bullets through the obstacle less grounds.

There was a frustrated snarl behind me as I realised that they had finally understood what was happening. I felt the faint lashes of the tendrils on my back and trying to pull my horse backwards. I created orbs of light and started throwing them behind me, trying to break free of its clutches.

I was still a good twenty metres away from the net when the tendrils finally caught up and pulled. Making a split decision, I took my shot, shooting the ball with as much strength as I could muster. My horse stumbled and fell onto his back legs, whinnying as I was thrown off and groaned as pain shot up my body. I lay on my stomach but managed to glance at the scoreboard which now read two to one in our favour and three second to go on the clock. The entire stadium started chanting the countdown in a thunderous roar.

"Three....two...one!"

A deafening din rose through the ground as the Asterians broke into cheers. I sighed and propped myself up to my knees. I sat up and couldn't help grinning as the infectious euphoria rang through the air. I felt like the energy vibrated in my veins.

I walked over to where the rest of the team was celebrating. Justin and Isaiah clapped me on the back and grinned happily.

However, neither Elijah nor Aris were to be seen anywhere. And we were leaving the grounds however, my eyes fell on the opposite team. My heart jumped as I saw that most of them seemed to gazing at me, with an intensity that made me uneasy.

I quickly made my way out of the grounds, the jubilation of the match fast fading when I saw Aris wallk out of the changing room and making his way outside without sparing me a single glance.

I gazed after him, my heart spiralling into my stomach. I had hoped that the euphoria of winning the match would have made him forget my vile words from earlier. However, I was mistaken, and I had no way of knowing if he would ever forgive me anyway.