Ability Wielders - Chapter 145 Ghanaian Team

His fun gaming session was interrupted by Gaia materializing in front of him, blocking his view of the screen. “Starakt. We have an urgent matter at hand.”

“Goddammit.” Starakt cursed. “I’m going afk guys, I’m sorry that I am not sorry at all.”

Without listening to the complaints of his comrades, Starakt shut down the console and sat on the sofa. “What is it this time?”

“The Dark Union assassins simultaneously attacked most Level 3 and 4 wielders in the island and killed them.” Gaia was distressed. “To make it worse, Hayden was held hostage earlier. And I cannot track any of them now. They’re on the island, but our main priority is Hayden. Also, Likoria is with him.”

“Dark Union, huh?” Starakt gulped. “Oho, after remaining dormant for thousands of years, has The Missus come out of her boredom?”

“Worse.” Gaia’s face darkened. “It seems she has found someone to counteract my observation power… If I’m correct, this is assistance from another Source Heart.”

“Another Source Heart?” Starakt frowned. “Is it Ares?”

“I don’t think so.” Gaia shook her head. “Let’s talk about this later. Check up on Hayden and Likoria. Survey their surroundings. Let us inform Hayden of this new threat.”

“I don’t think we should.” Starakt shook his head. “It will create unnecessary worry for Hayden. If they have the backing of a foreign Source Heart, I’m sure that they will walk on eggshells around us. Plus, it would be stupid if they launched a full-on attack on Hayden, a mere Level 2 wielder. I’m going there simply to check up on him.”

“Since you’re more skilled in this area than I am, I trust your decision.” Gaia nodded at Starakt. “Okay, check up on Hayden now.”

…..

Hayden, Eun-ha, and Sayuri went to a public park in the Inner Area succeeding the White Hood disaster. Likoria accompanied them as a fourth wheel.

In a remote location at the park, Hayden, Eun-ha, Sayuri, and Likoria were sitting on a large picnic mat. The opening of Eun-ha, Sayuri, and Likoria’s dresses were covered by a black lap blanket that Hayden has stored in his Space Ring. Again, Hayden was prepared for any situation.

Likoria was situated in front of Hayden, while Eun-ha and Sayuri were beside him. The trio couldn’t show sweet physical affection for each other as they were in a public setting.

“Are there really more people like him in the outside world?” Likoria asked with clear disappointment. “Killing people for no reason?”

“There are worse people than White Hood in the outside world.” Hayden answered. “As I’ve said, there are those that butchers people for fun.”

This incident that Likoria underwent through uprooted her entire worldview. She was starting to desire to save people when Hayden’s reminder pulled her away from this fantasy.

“You’re from that place.” Hayden pulled out four sandwiches from his Space Ring and threw one to Likoria. “During Tiroga, you can’t reveal your status as a wielder. Remember that your loyalties lay not to yourself, it is to ‘her.’ This is the harsh reality of the world.”

Likoria didn’t say anything else. She bit her lip and blankly stared at the stars with a pensive expression.

“Honey, how did you know the Level of White Hood?” Eun-ha, taking a bite from her sandwich, voiced her curiosity. “You’re not Level 3 yet, are you?”

Hayden explained the concept of Innate Gifts and his Danger Sense to Eun-ha and Sayuri without revealing anything pertaining to Foriast.

“Huh, now that I think about it…” Hayden narrowed his eyes and turned his head to Likoria. “Why do you have the power level of a Level 4 wielder…? From what I remember, you’re a Level 3, right?”

Likoria’s countenance didn’t change in the slightest, elegantly finishing the flavorful sandwich that Hayden gave her. “Perhaps it’s my Void Edge. Who knows?”

“I see that you have some secret, huh?” Hayden let Likoria go. ‘Don’t tell me she’s a dual wielder? No, dual wielders are supposed to be scarce, right?’

“Do you sense danger from us?” Eun-ha inquired.

“It apparently doesn’t work on people I fully trust.” Hayden earnestly replied. “Chung-hee noona, Daniel, Sayuri, and you. It is an instinct, so I don’t fully grasp how it works too.”

“Say, Likoria.” Sayuri, unable to contain inquisitiveness, veered the topic to Likoria. “Where are you from?”

“Unfortunately, that, I can’t say to outsiders.” Likoria apologetically spoke. “It is a matter of great secrecy. I may be executed if I blabbered.”

“I see.” Sayuri accepted it. “Then, can I ask if Hayden is involved with the place or organization you’re from?”

“He is tangled with them in more ways than one.” Likoria didn’t hide anything. “He is considered one of the most important individual within at that moment of his discovery.”

Eun-ha and Sayuri weren’t surprised by Hayden’s position in this organization. If they gave Hayden three World Items, objects of great importance even for the strongest wielders in Lunar Assembly.

In that instant, Starakt, in regular civilian attire of jeans and a white shirt, appeared in front of them. With him was two people wearing similar fashion. To the right was a man with a full beard and resembled Likoria. To his left was a beautiful voluptuous woman with beige skin and red hair.

Hayden stood up and greeted Starakt. “Le-Starakt.”

“Le-Hayden.” Starakt greeted Hayden. He then turned to Eun-ha and Sayuri. “Ro-Eun-ha. Ro-Sayuri.”

The two couldn’t respond in their confusion of what ‘ro’ is. Hayden nudged the two to show the gesture and said, “Say Ro- with Starakt.”

“Ro-Starakt.” Eun-ha and Sayuri simply followed Hayden.

“I’m glad that the four of you are safe.” Starakt bowed repentantly. “It is negligence on my part that the four of you have to undergo such an experience. I apologize. Specifically, to you Likoria. For a Rokia to witness that scene… You must have been scarred.”

“It’s no problem, Yorixia. Le-Hayden here helped me to tide through it.” Likoria didn’t accept Starakt’s apology. Afterwards, she oriented herself towards the man and greeted him. “Toraxia.”

Toraxia, pronounced identical to the Yorixia, was the Roshist word for father. It was both endearing and respectful, though with emphasizing the first syllable, it can be disrespectful. Its mother form is Guraxia, and its gender-neutral form is Rikaxia.

“Hiltakia (Hil-tak-ya).” Likoria’s father talked through gritted teeth. Likoria shivered at the mention of that word. Hiltakia was the Roshist word for one’s offspring to express one’s anger to them. If you heard this, you have to run far away from your parents or they’ll whip you up.

The endearing versions of the term are: Torakia (To-rak-ya) for son, Gurakia for daughter, and Rilakia for a gender-neutral one.

“Let her off easy this once, Rizik.” Starakt tapped the shoulder of Rizik twice. “We were all Roki once. You get how mischievous most Forish are during their days as a Rokia.”

Rizik’s face twitched, speechless of Starakt’s statement. He couldn’t find the words to rebut Starakt’s statement at all. Consequently, Rizik turned around without saying anything. Likoria shadowed her father.

“For the present, the three of you don’t have to worry about the recent events.” Starakt eyed the three people. “Miss Eun-ha, Miss Sayuri, I’ll have to borrow your boyfriend. He has some matters to attend to.”

Sayuri and Eun-ha met each other’s eyes. Sayuri was the one to talk. “We will make ourselves sparse then.”

With that, Eun-ha and Sayuri ensured that there was no people around and bade goodbye to Hayden with a kiss on the lips.

“Wow, in front of me.” Starakt shot Hayden a wry smile. “Is your goal to make me jealous of your thriving love life or what?”

“What? You’re the one who intruded on our time of bonding.” Hayden shrugged. “Anyway, are you going to tell me what’s up with that White Hood or not?”

“As I’ve said, you don’t have to worry about them right now.” Starakt threw away his joking attitude. “What you have to focus on is your evolution to Level 3 so that you’ll be able to protect yourself from most threats.”

“You don’t have to tell me.” Hayden exhaled heavily. “Goodbye, Le-Starakt.”

Hayden’s figure flickered as he disappeared. No sonic boom was created behind him as he suppressed it with his Essence Manipulation Arts.

“That kid’s power when it comes to manipulating the essence energy of the body is absurd.” Starakt rapidly blinked. He looked at the woman behind him. “Hey, you, follow that runt and protect him.”

The woman did the gesture of ‘it shall be done’ in Roshist prior to trailing Hayden. When the woman took off, Likoria and Rizik walked back to Starakt.

“Likoria.” Starakt seemed to wander off for a second. “Oh, yes. I grant you the rights to go out to the world and accompany Hayden as a watch when he returns to Philippines. He’d serve a good Tiroga teacher to you. On top of that, I permit you to activate your Ability during the Tiroga. I think that Hayden will set you straight.”

“What…?” Rizik was shocked of Starakt’s words. “Yorixia, I-”

“Hup, hup, hup.” Starakt shushed Rizik. “That Hayden is headstrong and has way more similarities with your daughter than you would expect. Additionally, I reckon it’s time for Foriast’s traditions to change. At the end of the day, the world is ever-changing, and the population of Foriast is growing. We don’t want to go against the tides, we want to be swept by it and go along with it. In 30 years, or earlier than 30 years, everything will change. Including the Overseers.”

Rizik, for some inexplicable reason, felt that Starakt’s words were irrefutable. “I understand, Yorixia.”

“Oh, yes, with the previous declaration in mind.” Starakt faced Likoria. “You will get to pick a Xirxian in the Xirixian vault.”

Rizik and Likoria were stunned by Starakt’s decision. Where in the world would you find an act of mischief being rewarded this handsomely? Nowhere! The answer was fucking nowhere!

Eight hours passed in the blink of an eye. In that timeframe, Hayden has finished absorbing his first Origin Crystal, was on his second Origin Crystal and was 75% on his way to Level 3. It was an unexpected speed for Hayden, who was agonizing how he can evolve to Level 3 as fast as possible.

On top of this, the entire eight hours he was absorbing essence energy and source energy from Origin Crystals, Hayden borrowed a few Liqirian (Li-chir-yan, singular: Liqiri) from the library.

These Liqirian were the equivalent of books in Foriast. It cannot be oversimplified as books as Liqirian were made of a white marble-like material and was the size of a hockey puck. On the surface, it was engraved of what Hayden wanted to learn: Formations.

The white marble-like material is a material that was called Nivora by the Forish. Unluckily, Hayden didn’t get the explanation for this Nivora.

As for the Liqirian he borrowed, it was for the Roshist language, the complete volume of the history of the Overseers and Foriast, the record of Innate Gifts, and a guide to manipulation of essence energy of the body.

How was Hayden able to understand it you ask? It can be attributed to the formations that was imbued in the Nivora being a subconscious information transfer similar to the Origin Crystal’s way of giving wielders information.

The remaining two hours before the match was used to spend time with Eun-ha and Sayuri. To be specific, snuggling in bed and eating a bit.

…

“Good prevening folks.” Commentator Hayden was back live. “It has been a wild ride, and now, our fellow Filipino, Hayden, with his team, will be vying for the Top Four this Thursday. Stay tuned for a live commentary. We are graced by the presence of Mr. David Yasay.”

“Good prevening.” David was shown in the screen. “This livestream is intended for the long-awaited match between the Ghanaian and Filipino youths. Apparently, in social media, the center and ace of the Ghanaian team, Akwasi Quatei, has challenged Hayden Emperador due to the common problem of men of their age: Women.”

“I wonder what is Miss Eun-ha’s opinion on this matter.” Commentator Hayden tried hard not to show that he was siding with someone. “As no one has publicly addressed this matter, we shall leave it at that.”

…..

In time, the match started. Per usual, Alfonso was at the center for the jump ball. With the height and jumping power advantage, it was a cinch for Akwasi to acquire the ball.

Akwasi brought the ball up himself. Faced with Hayden, Akwasi did all these fancy footwork tricks. Hayden was impressed, but it wasn’t enough. Without much, Hayden stole the ball and shot the ball without bringing it up.

Akwasi’s eyes widened. Seeing Hayden in action onscreen and up close was a whole different experience altogether. Hayden’s speed was no joke at all.

“What in the world are you doing?” Hayden’s face contorted in disgust of Akwasi’s actions. His voice contained passive rage. “Facing me yourself? Are you testing me?”

Hayden shook his head in disappointment of Akwasi. It was not that he wasn’t agile. It was that Hayden’s own agility was far beyond the agility of Akwasi. It wasn’t something that Akwasi can hope to match.

With the ball going back to the possession of the Ghanaian team, Kokou clapped once and ordered his team to go to position. As Hayden has seen in the videos, Kokou was fast and his orders were concise. He was the ideal leader.

It was there and then that Hayden knew that things were about to get serious. This resulted in him falling back to their court instead of his typical positioning at the half court line.

The Ghanaians loomed in on the Philippine team menacingly. Kokou passed the ball to the small forward of their team. From the movements of the small forward, he was a dribbling specialist.

The small forward induced an ankle break from Brando. Hayden was going to run there when he was impeded by Kokou. Kokou’s agility was lesser than him. Nevertheless, that didn’t stop Kokou from reading his movements and keeping up with him.

“I’ve studied you all night, Hayden.” Kokou talked to Hayden in English. “Although you are fast, that doesn’t make you less predictable, solely harder.”

“I see.” Hayden attempted all these evasive maneuvers to try and elude Kokou, to no avail. Kokou was stuck to him akin to a chewing gum that was long stuck on the bottom of a school table. “You are a good player, Kokou. Unfortunately, it’s me that you’re facing.”

Hayden stepped backwards and ran in a zigzag pattern in dazzling speed. Like a flash of lightning, Hayden passed Kokou. He reached the net in time for him to block the dunk attempt of Akwasi.

The ball flew into the hands of Darryl. With a quick look around the court, Darryl saw that Brando was open. The two made eye contact and formed a tacit understanding: ‘let’s bring the ball up for Hayden!’

Brando left his post and ran to the opposite side of the court. Darryl hurled the ball to Brando, who caught it with ease. Hayden smiled at how dependable and fast his teammates’ coordination was.

As a response, every member of the Ghanaian team ran to their side of the court. Hayden did the same. Meanwhile, Brando was already outside of the three-point line and was winding up.

“No way I’m letting you do that!” Akwasi bellowed and jumped in front of Brando. Brando stopped his windup and bounced the ball underneath Akwasi. Hayden received the ball without even looking at it.

Hayden took a step without dribbling the ball before being confronted by Kokou. As Hayden let go of the ball to dribble it, Kokou reached out to steal but was unable to due to the sheer speed of Hayden’s hands. Hayden actually switched hands that fast!

‘His hand speed is as fast as those magicians that does card tricks.’ Kokou was left in awe of Hayden’s dribbling technique and dexterity.

Kokou’s daze didn’t escape Hayden’s perception. He took advantage of it and passed him in an instant, coolly dunking the ball.

‘As I thought, he won���t be beaten without The Wall.’ Kokou bit his lip in excitement. He clapped and shouted something in Akan.

Everybody in the court were taken aback by Kokou’s decision. However, they didn’t fail to see why. It was because Hayden is unbeatable without that stratagem.

The Wall. A team play that entirely focuses on Akwasi’s height advantage and his considered to be inhuman jumping power that surpasses Hayden’s own.

In this team play, Akwasi will have the entire burden on defending the hoop by blocking shots instead of attempting to steal balls.

During offense on the other hand, Akwasi will stay on his feet somewhere halfway the half court line on the opponent team’s court and will be passed the ball if seen an opportunity.

This was the most powerful weapon of Akwasi that has been used only twice during the Annual Youth Pride in the battle with the Prodigal Kings, Phantom Hand, and The Acrobat: His accurate three-pointers.

This strategy is so effective not only for its efficiency. It was the mental pressure of needing to be cautious about Kokou or any of his team to pass towards Akwasi. Of course, this wouldn’t work without Akwasi’s immense agility relative to modern centers that allows him to perfectly block shots prior to the ball going in a downward arc as well as to bring the ball up himself whenever he is called to.

Needless to say, the Ghanaian team didn’t execute this strategy right away They deliberately exhausted all of their signature strategies first to allow Kokou to gather the necessary information to keep up with Hayden’s pace.

By the second quarter, Kokou was indeed able to keep up with Hayden. It was inexplicable and invigorating for Hayden.

Wherever Hayden went, Kokou was there. Whatever he did, Kokou would predict. It was purely thanks to his agility and reaction time that he could withstand Kokou’s attacks for this long.

At the five-minute mark of the second quarter, at 43-48, in favor of the Philippine team, Kokou clapped again and spoke something in Ghanaian. This was the cue for them to arrange themselves into The Wall.

“This is getting exciting.” Hayden licked his lips in excitement. He held off on utilizing Daniel as he wanted to have a taste of The Wall formation alone.

Dribbling the ball up to the court, Hayden was guarded once again by Kokou. As Hayden felt the pressure, he dished out his own secret weapon: The ankle-breaker. With a flashy, yet practical, handling of the ball, feinting, and finally a crossover, Kokou was ankle-broken.

He then wound up and was going to shoot when he noticed that Akwasi jumped in front of him. All Hayden saw was a wall. An insurmountable wall. ‘Holy shit, this guy’s confidence on his blocks is astronomical.’

Forcefully, Hayden terminated the motions of his shot and was going to pass when the ball was slapped away from his hands by Kokou. The ball was passed onto the power forward of the Ghanaian team.

‘This team is amazing.’ Hayden was filled with excitement, rushing over to their side of the court.

The coordination of the Ghanaian team was outstanding. And with Hayden being stuck onto by Kokou, he couldn’t help his team

Fortunately, Brando was able to read the small forward’s move and steal the ball out of his hands. Hayden, for the first time in his basketball career, was being overwhelmed.

When the Philippine team scored, Hayden whistled and did the hand signal for: ‘Come out, Daniel.’ It was as if Hayden was calling out for a Pokemon.