"So ruthless!"
Even Tsutomu Ikawa, who had just scored five points in a row against the other side, couldn't bear to watch anymore as he saw the Da Misaki players frozen like statues on the court.
At a moment when the opposing team's morale was barely wavering, getting hit with yet another crushing blow felt like a psychological assassination.
The score was now 9 to 1.
After enduring consecutive crushing serves, no matter how mentally strong the Da Misaki players were, they couldn't help but feel their defenses cracking.
Da Misaki's coach sat in the sidelines, nervously biting his thumbnail until the skin nearly tore.
The situation was unexpected not only for him but also for Nobuteru Irihata, the head coach of Aoshiro High. Though he knew Akashi Asuka and Tsutomu Ikawa's serves had surpassed normal high school standards, even professional players often make serve errors.
Both Ikawa and Akashi's serves were powerful but clearly hadn't reached pro level yet.
In practice, serve faults were common, and scenes like scoring multiple points in a row on serves, especially in official matches, were rare.
Irihata wondered, Are these two just in that kind of form today?
Boom!
Lost in thought, Irihata heard Akashi's fourth serve fly out again. Having gradually regained his feel for the new ball, Akashi was now serving at nearly 100% power.
The ball soared over the net and dropped right in front of Da Misaki's libero, but even then, the libero couldn't catch it.
10 to 1.
Another heavy blow to Da Misaki.
Because that point was taken from their best receiver, the libero, if even the libero couldn't handle it, no one else stood much chance.
"Timeout!!!"
Da Misaki's coach couldn't stay seated any longer and called his last timeout for the set.
Four serves had already eaten up two timeouts for the opponents.
This caused quite a stir among the spectators.
When the timeout ended, Akashi stepped back on the court for his fifth serve, but this time, his touch had cooled off.
The ball slipped at impact, barely clearing the net, grazing the top of the net on its way over.
Da Misaki managed to receive the serve, and the setter quickly organized a counterattack, but...
Kindaichi and Matsukawa stopped it dead with a formidable block.
The ball hit the ground.
Looking up at Aoshiro's front-row blockers, standing tall at 189cm and 187cm, the Da Misaki spiker's morale completely shattered.
"Wow! Aoshiro's block is so high."
"I was so focused on Akashi's and Ikawa's serves I totally ignored the others. Now I see, this year's Aoshiro lineup is terrifying, perfect both in offense and defense."
...
11 to 1.
Thanks to Kindaichi and Matsukawa's defense, Akashi still had the serve.
Boom!
Akashi's sixth serve was as fierce as ever, but the moment the ball left his hand, he felt something was wrong.
"Oh no... I lost control."
Sure enough,
The ball flew over the net without dropping, heading straight for Da Misaki's baseline.
It looked like an obvious out-of-bounds serve.
But then, unexpectedly,
Just as the lines judge raised the flag for an out ball, Da Misaki's libero lunged forward and managed a desperate save.
His teammates froze in disbelief, and even Aoshiro's players were momentarily stunned.
What was more absurd was that none of Da Misaki's other players reacted. They stood like statues, helplessly watching the ball roll back into bounds, and then fall to the ground.
Thud, thud, thud...
For a moment,
The entire court fell into eerie silence. All Da Misaki players suddenly felt the noise around them disappear. Aside from their own heavy breathing, nothing could be heard.
An immense pressure crashed down like a collapsing skyscraper, and the physical and mental fatigue that had been building up suddenly broke loose like a dam bursting.
In his vision, the ball rolling on the floor reflected back at the libero, whose mind went blank.
"Is this the last mental defense breaking down?" Ikawa looked at the mistake opposite him and realized the match was basically over.
More than the score difference, a collapse in mental state on the court usually led to a total team breakdown.
Da Misaki's coach promptly called for a substitution.
Their starting libero was taken out and replaced by a backup, but at this point, the change was mostly symbolic.
Ten minutes later,
The first set ended with a lopsided score of 25 to 7.
...
Second Set
Da Misaki's starting libero returned to the court.
In such a short time, shaking off the shadow of Akashi's serves was obviously not going to be easy.
However, Akashi's serving was less dominant in this set, while he still scored points, his number of errors increased noticeably.
But Akashi never relied on serving alone...
Bang!
The ball blasted out like a cannonball, piercing straight through the triple block in front of him.
"Damn it!"
Da Misaki's three blockers landed, glaring at the towering figure of Akashi with frustration and disbelief.
Does this guy even have a weakness?
Akashi turned around just as the scoreboard updated, Aoshiro had scored again.
23 to 11.
By this point, the stands near Aoshiro were nearly empty. Since the second set's midpoint, the outcome of the match had become all too clear.
"Nice hit!"
Aoshiro's players gave a half-hearted cheer for Akashi, but the tone was completely drained of energy.
Well, what else could they do?
When you already know the spike will score, it's hard to get truly excited.
They weren't actors, after all.
After the point,
Aoshiro rotated positions again, and Ikawa returned to serve at position one.
In the end,
Ikawa scored two points on serve to secure Aoshiro's first victory.
...
==========
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