The dorm teams gathered on the sports field on Saturday morning.

  Since the Lycée Fran?ais d’Evermarsh believed in gender suffering equality, the teams were mixed. Both boys and girls would struggle together to scrap a win. The luck of the draw favored Matthew as he ended up assigned with Kari and John to the same team under King Coach’s supervision. Miss Baum, the biology teacher, led the other team, and student council vice-president Vincent would act as the referee.

  “Alright warriors, listen up,” King Coach addressed his team. The Lycée’s P. E. teacher and general supervisor was a musclebound gorilla of a man with unkempt hair, a thick jawline, and the fashion sense of an eighties dropout. His true name was Philip King, but the students started calling him ‘King Coach’ early on and it stuck. “Miss Baum agreed to go on a date with me if I won this match, so failure isn’t an option.”

  “Never gonna happen, Coach,” Matthew replied. He meant the date—King Coach was an unhinged disaster of a human being that Miss Baum wouldn’t touch without a hazmat suit on—but the joke completely flew over his teacher’s head.

  “That’s the spirit, Matthew,” King Coach said with enthusiasm. “Your mind shouldn’t even consider losing this match! Return victorious or not at all!”

  Matthew immediately activated his Lucky Star spell to store good fortune. He would use the match to build up his good karma in time for the Dungeon excursion. He was tanned, rested, and pumped.

  Nothing could go wrong.

  King Coach started giving the players their positions. “Kari, John, you’re our star attackers, so you go to the front. The twins are in the middle. Chloé, Crick, you’re both awful but you’re the best defenders we’ve got. And Matthew…”

  Matthew straightened up as King Coach invaded his personal space quicker than Germany did with Poland’s. His teacher had the look of a general sending cannon fodder on a suicide mission.

  “Matthew, I know that deep, deep, deep…” King Coach took a deep breath. “Deep within you dwells the soul of a winner.”

  “You didn’t have to say deep four times, Coach,” Matthew complained.

  “What I mean to say is that being a winner means taking hits for the team. I’m assigning you as the goalkeeper, because I need everybody else in better places.” King Coach put his strong hands on Matthew’s shoulders and peered into his soul. “The people on the other side are your enemies. They’ll try to get past you, to wear you down, break your spirit, and kill you one ball at a time, but you mustn’t let it get to you! Are you willing to die for your team, Matthew?”

  “Ugh…” His Dungeon Wreckers one, yes; the football one, probably not. “I suppose…”

  “Because you will. Sports competitions are crueler than wars because they let you perish more than once. But through your sacrifice, you’ll be reborn in football Valhalla.” King Coach gave him a light tap on the cheek. “Do it for me, Matthew. If we win, I’ll name my first child after you.”

  “Please don’t, Coach,” Matthew replied immediately. “I’ll do it for free, Coach.”

  “Then you’re a true warrior.” King Coach released his grip. “Take your battle station.”

  The team began to disperse across the field. Matthew moved to the goal with a light heart, much to his teammates’ concern.

  “Are you sure you want to use your Lucky Star spell during a football match, Matt?” Kari asked him while biting her lip. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

  “I can’t pass up on a free good luck farming session.” Matthew waved his hand. The goalkeeper gloves fit him so well. “At worst, I’ll slip up in the mud and play dead.”

  “Marlene and Giant are playing on the other team,” John warned him.

  Matthew’s heart came to an abrupt stop.

  Tatiana, alias ‘Giant,’ was a sweet girl who just happened to be pushing two meters tall and with enough strength to beat a bear to submission—something which actually happened, if school gossip was to be believed. She had tried to push the administration to open a wrestling club, but no one was mad enough to play against her. As for Marlene, she was a capoeira practitioner with the most powerful legs in Class 3-A. She once ball-busted a pushy classmate so hard that his future grandchildren probably felt it.

  Something told Matthew that these two might prove to be a problem.

  Nonetheless, he resolved to protect his goal with the determination and nobility befitting his goalkeeper station. King Coach whistled the start of the match soon after.

  Matthew’s Doom Sense immediately started buzzing.

  The sudden shock startled him enough to focus on the football field in alarm. A colossus charged at him from across the field, her black mane flowing in the wind. Her icy blue eyes focused on Matthew’s net and the ground shook beneath her mighty heels.

  Tatiana kicked the ball with all of her strength.

  It was true what they said. Matthew saw his life flash before his eye: from his first baby steps to the ball-shaped missile aiming straight for him. It flew past half the field too fast for anyone to intercept.

  Only reflexes sharpened by years of Dungeon wrecking adventures allowed Matthew to raise his hands in time to catch the football. A shockwave rippled through his arms on impact. Matthew felt all of his bones creaking at once under the strain. His heel dug into the ground, his knees struggling to hold strong.

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  It took all of Matthew’s strength not to fall back. When at last the ball stopped and fell to the ground, his lungs gasped for air and his face sweat more than an Amazonian swamp. Everyone from both teams stared at him in disbelief.

  The blow had pushed Matthew one meter back towards the net.

  “I’m sorry,” Tatiana apologized with a small voice in her heavy Belarussian accent. “I overdid it.”

  She has to be a Crawler in disguise, Matthew told himself. Few monsters hit harder than she did. And since Doom Sense only activated in the presence of potentially lethal danger, then this meant that a shot from Tatiana could kill him.

  By the time the ball returned to play, Kari immediately moved to tackle it out of Giant’s reach. She cared so much for Matthew’s safety that it brought tears to his eye. When his teammate passed the ball to John, he almost believed himself safe.

  A pity that a redheaded flash intercepted the ball.

  Marlene charged across the field and deftly dodged Kari’s attempt to tackle her. She moved like a panther on the hunt and Matthew was very much her prey.

  The defenders thankfully reacted in time and surrounded her. However, instead of relinquishing the ball, Marlene kicked it with all her strength. She should have been too far away to threaten Matthew, so he briefly allowed himself to relax.

  Then the ball’s trajectory bent ever so slightly.

  Matthew barely managed to dodge and avoid a blow to the head. Instead, the ball hit him squarely in the chest, much to his sorrow.

  This soon became a recurring pattern as the game went on. Matthew blocked two more strikes with his body in spite of his best efforts to avoid them, all in ten minutes’ time.

  “Fortress Matt is stopping everything!” King Coach shouted from the audience. “Take note! He’s sacrificing his flesh and blood for the cause!”

  I’m trying not to! Matthew complained as he massaged the new bruises on his chest. Lady Luck is bullying me.

  His Lucky Star spell kept bending the ball’s trajectory so it would hit him. He had become a calamity magnet.

  Matthew’s hunch had been correct. Surviving this match would let him harvest a bounty of good luck… if he survived to the end.

  No, Matthew, that’s what the Coach warned you about! Don’t let them break your spirit! Matthew gathered his breath and adopted a fighting stance worthy of a Japanese shonen anime hero. You’ve survived monsters, real monsters. You can do this!

  A good Crawler never played fair.

  Matthew’s reserves meant that he could sustain his Doom Sense more or less indefinitely. Maintaining it and Lucky Star both at once was easy enough since they both belonged to the same color and their internal logic didn’t conflict with one another.

  Casting Peak was another matter entirely. Shifting part of his Flux until it turned Green and channeling enough Yellow to fuel his other spells all at once proved a terrible strain on his mind and body.

  Yet he had to succeed. For the sake of his future luck streak.

  Matthew focused on his Flux, trying to shift the flow coursing through his body to Green while keeping some of it Yellow to fuel his passive spells. The effort left him sweating. At least Disbelief didn’t weigh on him since none of these spells were visually noticeable.

  By the time Matthew stabilized his Peak spell enough to no longer feel his bruises, the two teams waged a raging battle over the fate of the ball. A melee of kicks and tackles unfolded before his eye.

  A single titan emerged victorious.

  Matthew’s heart sank as Marlene tossed the ball to Tatiana, who swiftly charged at him faster than a bull. The treacherous twins stepped out of her way rather than try and stop her. Crick and Chloé, the team’s brave and foolish defenders, tried to make a futile last stand. Both were left in the dust.

  Is this my Thermopylae? Matthew frantically attempted to keep his spells working together in preparation for the incoming strike. His Doom Sense buzzed in alarm. If I can’t dodge, I’m dead.

  By the time Matthew seriously considered canceling his Lucky Star spell, it was already too late. Tatiana kicked the ball at him with her immense strength.

  The projectile surged through the air like a blazing comet. Time seemed to slow down as Matthew saw the spherical messenger of death approach him at full speed. His Doom Sense grew so tense that a yellow veil overwhelmed his vision.

  The Green Flux coursing through his body flared up at once.

  Matthew’s body moved on its own. A surge of adrenaline coursed through his body, strengthening his muscles and hastening his heartbeat. He raised his left foot, pivoted on himself, and hit the ball with a roundhouse kick. His entire body weight and strength pushed against Giant’s overwhelming power.

  He managed to deflect the ball to the side, and it hit the referee in the face. Poor Vincent collapsed in the dirt.

  Someone screamed in fear and almost everyone gathered around today’s casualty. Matthew himself was too busy massaging his foot to join them. Damn, that hurt!

  “Coach, Coach!” Chloé shouted. “Matthew and Tatiana murdered Vincent!"

  Shit, Matthew didn’t know any spell that could raise the dead!

  “Nobody killed anyone!” Miss Baum scolded Chloé before checking on their poor referee. “He’s still breathing!”

  “Are you all right, Vincent?” Tatiana asked him with a guilty look on her face.

  “I’m alive…” Vincent muttered weakly on the ground before raising a yellow card like a white flag. “Please spare me…”

  King Coach whistled the half-time break and then gave Matthew some solid sports advice. “I know that I said failure wasn’t an option, but killing the referee isn’t an automatic win condition.”

  “Can’t you die more than once at sports?” Matthew replied with a deadpan look. He thought his teacher would cut him some slack since he nearly perished on the field of battle.

  “Yeah, but dying is worth an immediate red card. Don’t get canceled, Matthew.” King Coach gave him a light tap on the back. “Now go get a drink. You’ve earned it.”

  Matthew’s foot had recovered enough to let him stand up again, so he decided to go grab a soda. His teammates and some of his competitors took a moment to congratulate him on his awesome defense.

  “You pulled some serious Spider-Ninja shit, Matt,” Marlene complimented him as she moved to grab a water bottle. “You should join the martial arts club.”

  “I am so sorry,” Tatiana apologized to Matthew. “I tried not to hit the ball too hard…”

  “It’s fine,” Matthew lied through his teeth. She looked so ashamed that he didn’t have the heart to tell her the truth. “I’m pain-proof.”

  Tatiana still apologized two more times before he managed to convince her. John and Kari soon joined Matthew, though only the latter showed concern for his health.

  “I must say, that was an impressive move,” John said. The mere fact that the jackass actually congratulated Matthew spoke volumes. “Could all those years of fighting game competitions actually have taught you a thing or two?”

  “I don’t know how I did it,” Matthew confessed. “It’s like my Doom Sense and Peak spells acted together for a second.”

  While John immediately stroked his chin in interest, Kari let out a sigh. “Matthew, you should cancel your Lucky Star spell before you get hurt,” she advised him. “I don’t want to explore a Dungeon with a crippled teammate.”

  Matthew wisely decided to take her advice. No good luck was worth so much pain.

  What happened with Peak and Doom Sense did bother him though. Both acted in concert to strengthen his body in a pinch.

  Did his spells combine somehow?

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