chsdbacks Chapter 317: Heroes vs Monsters(6)
Chapter 317: Heroes vs Monsters(6)
Up in the boxes, Mirage slammed his fist against the railing."This is a joke. Look at Griffin... he is trying so hard, running himself into the ground just to touch him, and the big guy is just treating them like a clown."
"He is not even using his teammates this time," Chloe whispered. Her fingers were shaking as she watched the game. "What did you say about making him use all his energy? Erica’s traps are useless now, this is what I was saying..."
With five minutes left on the clock, the arena felt like a pressure cooker about to blow. Griffin had completely lost it. He was breathing hard, those loud, desperate gasps for air, and his spit was flying from his mouth as he chased Nash back toward the paint.
But here is the thing that was really killing Griffin: Nash was not even trash-talking him anymore. The big guy had gone totally silent. He was just ignoring Griffin like he wasn’t even there, calmly destroying the rest of the Falcons.
It was driving the red-haired rookie crazy. He did not care about sportsmanship or team chemistry anymore. All he felt was this toxic, suffocating rage. He started ignoring everything Erica was shouting. He was basically sabotaging his own team, cutting off his own teammates’ paths and literally running into them just so he could get close to Nash.
Then, a fast break happened. Shane grabbed a clean pass and saw a wide-open lane to score. He was moving fast, about to take the lead, but Griffin sprinted across the court like a wild animal and stepped right in Shane’s way. He did not just ask for the ball; he basically shoulder-checked his own teammate, almost knocking them both flat on their faces.
"Get the hell out of the way, Shane! He is mine! I am going to break this guy!" Griffin screamed. His eyes were bloodshot and he actually had foam at the corners of his mouth. He looked insane.
Shane stumbled back, his mouth hanging open.
"Griffin, what the hell are you doing?! Get back in your position!"
Griffin did not even hear him. He just put his head down and charged straight at Nash, who was waiting under the rim with this mean smirk on his face. Griffin threw every single bit of his soul into a brutal shoulder block.
And.... Nash did not move an inch.
There was a loud noise that echoed, it felt like Griffin had just rammed his entire body into a wall of solid steel. In that split second, before Griffin could even feel the pain, Nash pulled off a monstrous ankle breaker. He did not even use his arms; with a quick flick of his wrist, he faked right and then whipped the ball straight through Griffin’s legs.
It happened so fast that Griffin’s legs just gave out. He crashed hard onto the wood, his sneakers screeching as his left ankle twisted violently. He skidded across the floor and ended up flat on his stomach, sweating and gasping for air. He tried to push himself up, but his joints were finally introducing him to a world of pain.
Nash just walked over slowly. He looked down at the shaking rookie and spoke in a flat voice.
"Stand up," Nash murmured. "I am not done ripping the feathers of this falcon."
Griffin’s fingers clawed at the floor, leaving wet streaks of sweat on the wood as he tried to force himself to stand.
"Shut up... shut up! I am going to kill you!"
"You’ll die trying," Nash spat.
Suddenly, the referee blew a loud, sharp whistle, and the game stopped for an emergency timeout for the Falcons. For a second, the whole arena went quiet. Everyone was staring at the baseline.
Griffin was still on the floor. He was actually scratching the wood with his fingernails, trying to drag his body forward because his ankle was completely twisted. He looked like a crazy person at this point. His face was covered in sweat and spit, and you could tell his brain wasn’t even working normally anymore. He just wanted to win, no matter what.
Erica ran past the sideline, totally ignoring the medical staff. She looked pale, and her voice sounded like it was breaking because she was so stressed out.
"Substitution! Fred, get out there and help him up! Griffin, you are coming out right now!" Erica screamed.
Griffin froze. He did not just heard that. Of all things, she couldn’t have said that. Not now, not after everything. He rose his head and looked at his coach like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
"... What? No... No! I am not leaving this floor!" Griffin yelled. He forced himself to stand up on his injured leg, even though it was shaking like a leaf. "I can still stop him! Just one more play! Leave me in the game, Erica!"
"Look at your leg, Griffin! You can barely even stand!" Erica hissed. She stepped right into his face. She didn’t look like a coach anymore; she just looked like a worried mother who was panicking. "You are destroying your own body! You are ruining the whole team’s plan! This isn’t a game anymore! You are done for the night!"
"I don’t care about the plan!" Griffin roared back. His pride was blinding him. He didn’t even realize how bad he was hurt. "I am the star of this team! If I quit now, we lose everything! You can’t bench me!"
"Shut up, Griffin!" John’s voice silenced everyone.
Griffin blinked. He felt the air around him turn ice cold. He looked at his teammates, expecting them to cheer him on, but all he saw were tired, angry faces. Shane didn’t even try to help him up; he just glared at him with pure frustration.
Then Rain stepped up. Rain didn’t look angry, which was actually worse. His blue eyes were empty. He just looked... disappointed.
"Get off the court, Blaze," Rain said. Now this basically sucked all the energy out of Griffin. "You are not playing breakball anymore. You are just having a selfish tantrum, and you are just getting in our way now."
Griffin felt like he had been punched in the chest.
"Even you, Rain...? You are telling me to quit?"
"It is already over, Griffin," John sighed. "Nash destroyed us two quarters ago. Erica is not benching you because she wants to lose. She is literally ruining her own coaching strategy just to save your stubborn ass from being permanently crippled by that monster. Look at what you are doing to her."
Griffin’s jaw twitched. He looked at Rain, then John, and then he saw Erica’s pale, shaking face. Suddenly, the anger disappeared and he realized the truth.
He wasn’t a hero. He was just a stubborn kid who was hurting his own team because he was too proud to admit he was losing. He had gone way too far.
The pain in his ankle finally hit him, a sharp, blinding agony that made his knees buckle. But maybe the pain in his chest was bigger.
Griffin dropped his head, his shoulders slumping.
"I am... I am sorry," he whispered. His voice cracked a little, showing just how broken he was. "I am sorry, everyone."
He didn’t even fight it when John and Shane grabbed him by his jersey and dragged his limping body off the court to the bench. He collapsed onto a plastic stool and threw a towel over his head to hide his face.
But the humiliation was just starting.
The thousands of fans in the stands didn’t know about the drama or Griffin’s injury. All they saw was the star player being pulled out while the other team was winning. To the public, it looked like Erica was a terrible coach making a huge mistake.
Suddenly, a wave of laughing and booing hit them. People started shouting insults at Erica.
"Nice coaching, sweetie! Go back home!" one guy roared. "You just threw the whole match! You are useless!"
"Get her off the court! She is a joke!" another guy yelled, and someone even threw a plastic cup that landed right by her feet.
Erica just stood there. She kept her head down, her face white under the bright lights. She didn’t yell back or try to defend herself. She just stood there and took all that hate, sacrificing her own reputation just to protect Griffin from being further humiliated by Nash.
Under his towel, Griffin watched her take the blame. He felt a deep guilt in his throat. He realized that because he was so arrogant, what could have been a bad defeat had become a public execution, and now, his coach was being destroyed in front of everyone just to protect her useless key player. He wept silently, his tears falling uncontrollably.
Nash watched all of this from the middle of the court. He let out a long, bored sigh. The scary glow in his green eyes faded away as his Zone state turned off. He didn’t even need it anymore. The job was done.
The last four minutes of the game were a total nightmare for the Falcons. Without Griffin to score, they had no way to attack.
Rain tried his best to move the ball around, using his fancy moves to find an opening, but there was nowhere to go. Since they had no one who could actually score, his passes were useless. Ryan and Sam just didn’t have the skill to get past the defense. Nash didn’t even have to try anymore; he just stood in the paint like a brick wall, casually grabbing every rebound.
To make it even worse, Jaz and Alicia came back into the game, fresh and ready to finish things.
Nia ran the floor looking completely relaxed, like she was taking a walk in a park. She sliced through Fred’s tired defense and threw perfect, fast passes right to Alicia. Alicia was like a machine. She just kept shooting three-pointers, and the ball ripped through the net over and over again. It sounded like a funeral bell ringing for the Falcons.
Every time a sneaker squeaked on the wood, it felt like another nail in the Falcons’ coffin. The game had been dead for a long time, and when the final buzzer screamed, the scoreboard showed the massacre to everyone’s eyes.
Blacklist 104 - 82 Falcons.