The Rise of the Iron Wall!-Chapter 56: Full of Sparks, Full of Collisions!

"FOUL!"

Makino was the first to react here. The moment he saw Usami tripped over, he didn’t hesitate, rushing forward to deliver his complaint.

"Sensei, look at him! He is about to shoot, and he got fouled so maliciously! It is a yellow card!" He pointed at Usami, who, without being told to, knew that he had to pretend here.

"Yes, Sensei! Look at what he has done here!" Hiroshi added the fuel, approaching the referee with thick veins popping on his forehead. He had to be held back by Makino here, as only the captain could argue with the referee.

Unfortunately, the referee, the young man of around 23, didn’t bulge here, let alone get intimidated. The man just shook his head, and let alone a yellow card, he didn’t even grant a foul for Hakodate Nishi High.

"Sensei, that’s unfair!" Makino whined; his tone was like he was about to throw a tantrum here.

"Unfair?" The referee narrowed his eyes dangerously. "If you feel that this is unfair, how about I give a foul for every contact you make against Ritsumeikan’s number 14? That would balance things out to your request, you know?"

This shut the hell out of Makino’s mouth. Indeed, the first half really set a precedent here, guiding the game into a rough one. If the referee decided to give this contact a foul, then he would follow the same standard for the rest of the game, and it would be a disaster for Hakodate Nishi.

After all, their strategy to contain Iwai from Ritsumeikan was quite rough here, sometimes even borderline foul.

"Also, don’t think that I didn’t notice. Your teammate just stumbled from losing balance, not from excessive contact. Don’t test me here, Boy." The referee warned Makino once again, which made the captain wilt under the pressure.

Iwai himself, the culprit behind the contact, couldn’t help but smirk. Inwardly, though, the boy let out a relieved sigh. After all, the contact he made would result in a foul in some games, and honestly, he was ready to argue a moment ago.

The boy didn’t regret his action, though. After all, the attack from Hakodate Nishi really caught his teammates off guard, and if Iwai didn’t cut the ball, it would be dangerous for the team.

"Come on, Usami-kun, let’s go back." Makino helped the boy to get up from the ground, retreating immediately.

After that, the game restarted again with a throw-in for Ritsumeikan, and since the blitzkrieg attack failed, all the Hakodate Nishi players also went back quickly, waiting for the opponent to come back into their territory.

Some people still regretted the failure, though, especially those who knew how dangerous Ritsumeikan’s attack was, like Kumiko.

’Tch! If only we could get our second lead, that would be perfect.’ She clicked her tongue in annoyance, sitting back on the bench. However, the girl didn’t lament on it for too long, knowing that this kind of attack often relied on luck.

Then, she narrowed her eyes slightly at the little change that the opponent made. ’So, Iwai is switching on the right side, huh? Probably wanting to force Ishinori-kun to go back there. Fortunately, we have already expected this.’

Indeed, Kumiko had already foreseen that the opponent would start pushing from that side. After all, with Ishinori not there, they would want to test whether that side was still as strong as ever, and that would be initiated by the best player of the team himself, Iwai.

However, the girl had already made some preparations here. Not too excessive, just to make sure that Jun’s part was covered even without Ishinori’s support, by dragging Fujinaga one step behind for a support defense.

As for Ishinori himself, handling Iwai on the flank...

Well, Kumiko had never doubted that boy even for a single second.

Fujinaga might be the best player in terms of help defense, always being able to pop anywhere the ball went. However, in terms of an individual defense like this, Ishinori could stick on the opponent’s side forever, gluing onto his opponent the whole time and suffocating him to death.

Honestly, this was the initial strategy that Kumiko thought after watching how Sappotani handled that man, before she finally changed it in the last second. After all, even though she didn’t doubt that Ishinari would be able to do it, the girl didn’t want to go for a 10v10 game prematurely.

Also, Ishinori’s presence was too great to be used only as a personal bodyguard for Iwai.

Still, now that the game had turned into this phase, Kumiko couldn’t help but smile here.

’Show them, Ishinori-kun...’ She couldn’t help but mutter; her tone was full of excitement. ’Show them that they cannot just walk on your head that easily! Show them what the best defender in our team is capable of!"

-0-

Meanwhile, on the pitch, Iwai strolled with the ball, getting dragged by his right foot. The boy was walking slightly just right, a few inches in front of the sideline.

Ishinori followed silently, both hands on the back to make sure that he wouldn’t make any unnecessary contact here. His eyes were also switching back and forth from Iwai’s core to the ball in his feet, trying to make sure that he could read the play perfectly.

For a moment, everything seemed to freeze on the pitch, as all eyes were on those two. The other players also didn’t make any move, waiting for the duel to unfold.

Iwai was surprised, for a moment having a feeling that the boy in front of him was a similar beast to the one from Sappotani. This was enough to give a goosebump here, as the boy felt every single part of his body shiver.

’No, what am I thinking here?’ He shook his head strongly, trying to deny that idea. ’Only Sappotani is crazy enough to turn their defender into a man-to-man marking specialist. There is no way any other player could do the same here.’

With that confidence, the boy started to speed up a little.

From walking around following the sideline, he suddenly lowered his stance, leaning his center of mass toward the left side. For a moment, it looked like the boy was about to continue penetrating further down the baseline, and Ishinori caught the bait foolishly.

’Ha! I got you!’

Right after that, Iwai shifted his body to the other side, and with a quick flick, he changed direction, showing a great escape technique that passed through his defender’s marking.

"SHIT! HE IS GOOD!"

"SOMEONE, COVER! DON’T LET THE CROSS FLY!"

"HEY, GET READY FOR A CUTBACK!"

For a moment, people on the outside of the pitch became noisy, all feeling anxious about the current situation. Iwai’s technique was so simple but deadly effective, and even an amateur here could tell at first glance that the dribbling sequence belonged to elite players.

Iwai himself grinned, somehow feeling like he had already done his mission here.

However, as he was about to lift the ball, it seemed karma hit him hard here. He saw a blurred figure pounce at him like a cheetah, and somehow, Iwai knew what Hakodate Nishi players felt a moment ago, as that figure suddenly tackled the ball on his feet quite cleanly.

BAM!

And then, he fell on the ground, exactly in the same manner as how Usami fell from his charge a moment ago.