"I'm sorry, Wakka," Lulu said quietly, as the makeshift Besaid Auroch team returned to the locker room for the halftime break. She was clearly not used to such failures.
"Nah, it's fine, Lu. We just had to get warmed up! Now we're really ready to show 'em!" He tried to sound enthusiastic, but he was disappointed in himself, too. Rikku stuck her tongue out at Wakka.
"At least one of us managed to score a goal."
"Yah, but too bad you had to resort to your machina to get things done! Man, we're lucky the ref didn't call us on that one."
"Hey, it worked didn't it?! I think I'll call it . . . 'Flash Shot'!" Wakka just shook his head.
"Huh. Well, I guess as long as we win . . . "
"That's the spirit!" Rikku clapped her hands and cheered, and the team returned to the arena, more determined than ever not to let the Goers win.
The blitz-off started, and Yuna darted forward to catch the ball. As soon as she felt it in her fingers, she quickly made a movement with her free hand to cast Reflect. She had just barely finished when Bickson barrelled into her, making her vision go black for a moment and causing her to let go of the ball. No sooner had Bickson grabbed it, though, when he yelped and she felt a surge of energy rush into her.
"Is that what they call a Drain Tackle?," she asked sweetly, her grin anything but innocent. Before Bickson could recover, Rikku kicked him in the gut and got the ball back. Darting around Abus, she swam frantically toward the goal. Just as she started to get close, though, someone grabbed her arms from behind, and Doram swam up to greet her.
"Well, well, Balgerda -- look who we caught!"
"Where're your flashy tricks now?" a raspy voice behind Rikku taunted, whom she assumed must be Balgerda. Before Rikku could reply, Doram snatched the ball away and passed it up to Abus, who was skirting the edge of the arena to avoid Auron and Kimahri. Although he was still fairly far from the goal, he shot the ball immediately rather than risk another encounter with the two stalwart defenders.
The friction of the water slowed the ball's progress considerably, and Lulu positioned herself to catch it. At the last minute, however, the ball's spin made it veer to the other side of the goal. It was now too far for her to reach, but she flung out her moogle and the ball slammed into it, stopping just before it would have hit the back wall of the goal. Snatching up the blitz-ball and the moogle in one fluid motion, she tossed the ball to Auron, not trusting her accuracy and strength to send it further.
In one, quick movement, Auron's left arm darted out of his kimono and grabbed the ball. Slow, powerful strokes took him closer to the other side, but then he noticed the entire team of the Goers gathering together, clearly intent on barring his path. With an amused "Hnmph," he unconcernedly tossed the ball over his shoulder to Wakka.
Unfortunately, Wakka was looking the other way, so the ball bounced off the side of his head and sailed into the arms of the opposing team. They then swam fluidly to form a new formation, a sort of human sphere around Bickson, who had the ball. Slowly, but in unison, they swam toward the Auroch goal.
"Oh, no you don't!," Wakka protested, and tackled Graav with a heavy blow to his head, striking him unconscious. The Goers shifted, trying to cover the hole in their formation, but then they met with Kimahri.
The Ronso growled, calling upon his inner powers of rage to mimic one of Spira's most deadly monsters. Sickly green gasses spewed forth from his mouth at the formation, and the Goers reeled away, coughing. Most of them were poisoned; Balgerda fell asleep, and Abus was flailing around blindly. Bickson, however, was heading straight for the goal in a berserker rage, his face contorted with anger and determination.
Rikku, Yuna, and Auron swam towards Bickson as fast as they could, but he ignored them, and with almost superhuman speed, launched a shot at the goal from point-blank range. Lulu flapped her arms in an attempt to jump, but she couldn't get up high enough, and the shot went through.
"Oh, no, they're winning!," Rikku moaned, as the blitzers made their way back to their positions for the next blitz-off. Yuna glanced nervously at the scoreboard, reading 2-1, and readied herself to face off. The clock was counting down; there were only forty seconds until the half was over. Even if they managed to score in that time, they would still have to make another goal during overtime.
Since the Goers had made a goal, it was the Auroch's ball. Yuna caught it, and immediately passed it off to Rikku, who sped past the forwards, and, just as she was about to reach the defenders, hurled the ball across the court to Wakka. He was then faced with a dilemma -- he was not close enough yet to shoot, but any closer and he'd be at the mercy of Doram and Balgerda. They didn't have enough time for him to try anything else. He paused for a second, mind racing at what to do.
Suddenly a flash of green caught his eye. Positioned right above the Goer's goal, its small form hardly noticeable amid the blue water, was one of Lulu's Cactuar dolls. I hope you know what you're doing, Lu!, he thought, as he kicked the ball over to the tiny creature. Doram looked confusedly at where he kicked the ball, seemingly to the middle of nowhere. The cactuar, waving its arms happily, waited until the ball was close, and then somersaulted down on top of it, changing the ball's course down towards the Luca goal. Although Raudy jumped at the last minute, the angle was awkward, and he couldn't quite intercept the ball in time. The score was now tied, again.
Yuna barely had time to let out an encouraging cheer before she was facing off Bickson again. Now, just going into overtime, whoever made the next goal would win. I'll do my best, Tidus!, she thought to herself, wondering if they could really win. But, picturing Tidus' face watching them from the sphere terminal on the airship, Yuna knew she had to do more than just try her best . . . no, she had to be victorious! With a sudden burst of adrenaline and determination, Yuna grit her teeth and grinned fiercely. They were going to win -- she would make sure of that!